My Dad was there! He was a communications (wireless) sergeant in the R.A.F. He parachuted into Yugoslavia with Randolph Churchill and had to spend a night in a tent with him. When I was a schoolboy in the 1950's he was always telling anyone who would listen about his experiences, but most of it went over my head. What I do recall was his contempt for Churchill's son, and how he and Tito had to stealthily circle round a tree to avoid being spotted by a German aircraft. He presumably was the wireless operator for the mission that rescued Tito. He died in 1993 and I only wish I had quizzed him more. I know that after Fitzroy McLean, who was his boss, published "Eastern Approaches" he corresponded with him, with, I believe some factual corrections. He never went back to Yugoslavia.
It's a great loss for the history of ww2 ( especially in Yugoslavia) that your father didn't leave memoirs or writings of any kind about his wartime experiences. It would be interesting to read, no doubt. As we , ex Yugoslavs , would say, eternal glory and gratitude to your father for his service and may he rest in peace.
Wow.All Respect and Salute for your father and other staff.Thanks to Mr Churchill who decided to help our PARTISANS. trully Heroes, contrary to all Nazi Colaborators from other side(Croatian Ustasa,serbian Cetnics,Nedic gendarms,Ljotic Fashist movement...and many others).
@@Zagorec-p2y My father was the SS Gruppenfuhrer General who had secret mission to capture son of CHurchil and demand UK extradite churchil to Hague to stand trial for war crimes. Mission was secret that even Hitler Himmler and Goebels didn't know about it. They put tother 100,000 SS troops armed with special guns, and they used C-130 planes to drop 10,000 airbone IFVs.
I knew a guy who made this jump. He was shot in the foot. He was a Communications officer. He was captured at Nijmegen later in the war and sent to the US as a POW and came back to the US and became a citizen in the 50's.
@@Cheeki_breeki6 yes he was an SS- UnterStrumfuhrer.His name was Gerhard Franzky. He wrote a book called learning to walk He was shot in the foot while coming down in his chute and had to learn how to walk again hence the title.
@@mikebrase5161 fantastic piece of additional info, thankyou sir! it is always worth reading comments under Dr Feltons videos, there are quite often little beautys of additional info on the videos subject.
Tačno, a i Staljinu je poslao pismo posle ne znam koliko pokušaja staljina da ubije tita..." nemoj vise slati ljude da me ubiju jee cu biti prinudjen da ja posaljem agente pri cemu necu imati potrebu dabih saljem drugi put" Opasan Tito bio pravi diplomata.
@@richardm3023 It's Tito's famous letter to Stalin. “Stalin. Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send another.”
As an ex-paratrooper I always marveled at how the German's seemed to dive out the doors of their aircraft. We trained to go feet first into the prop blast so as not to get the risers and lines twisted.
..They only had one riser, attached to their backs. That meant they couldn't steer their chute except by waving their arms around wildly. They also jumped without heavy weapons and had to recover them from containers. That cost them a lot of casualties, especially in Crete.
I can see the positives of not jumping out with your “kit” as the British say. But to jump out with your weapons; is crazy! If you can’t somewhat control where you’re going to land? It most likely will be your last time alive if you didn’t get shot coming down or killed by hitting the ground? You were most likely going to get killed trying to get to your weapons, unbelievable! @@louisavondart9178
@@louisavondart9178 I heard the German parachute design was the worst of any nation in the war. As a result, they suffered a high number of injuries on landing, reducing their battle effectiveness from the off. The Soviets actually were said to have the best parachutes.
What a coincidence, an hour ago i was asking myself if SS paratroopers ever existed. I was amazed to see that YES they did. And just now Mark Felton posted a brand new video on them !
Yep, just the 500.Battalion, later reorganized as 600.Bat. (which I believe didn't get to jump at all). They all used Luftwaffe FJ equipment (camo smocks, helmets, and of course the parachutes), so in combat, they looked almost identical to their Luft counterparts. Most of the film footage Mark uses here is of the regular Fallschirmjaeger, but there's so little film or photos of the SS guys.
It's so weird this was uploaded today. I was literally just searching this morning if there were any SS fallschirmjäger after a fellow reenactor had brought it up. Another wonderful video.
DUDE i was litteraly thinking about that too an hour ago ! Was wondering if SS fallschirmjager ever existed and BAM a mark felton video on them. I'm starting to think Mark has some kinds of superpowers
Please put some flowers on this sacred ground. I was marriedcto a Serbian and her pop survived until 1945 wgere he died from kidney disease.hiswife was tortured and spent the next 60 term in an institution. My exwifes mum was looked after in in orphanage and was a very cold and strange woman. Its the aftermath of the war that affects generations to this day. My ex never had a childhood either but a fantastic mother to our children. The best thing her parents did was to immigrate to Australia where we have a large population of Serbian people.
Piss in the cave, just a bunch of communist, that bled the fake made up country called Yugoslavia, right up till the end of 1990s war country was poor, look at Croatia now… land of gold
@@edwardcuruvijapenrose5081 Good answer and he forget to mention enormous emigration to europe to find work, Yugoslavia had a economy in the 80 s a lot of countrys wish for. And in time of big earthquake a lot of coastline was destroyed Yugoslavia build it up again. People that post these comment are usually the ones that don't live in ex Yugoslavia anymore.
Stane Dolanc one of Yugoslav high officials and close Tito's aides was asked once by a journalist about rumors that Yugoslavia would disintegrate after Tito's death. He said: "If someone attacks us they will see how united we are." The journalist then asked: "What if no one attacks you?"
@@AA-bz1pr problem is it was an artificial creation so many issues. I did 3 tours there, beautiful country and people were great, just no to each other
Thank you .My grand grand father fought with him . His name was Josip Surname Broz , Tito .We engaged 33 German divisions during the war .And we won despite all odds. Ideas and longing for freedom are bulletproof .Respect from Beograd mr Felton.
You're good Dr. Felton! When you said "elite SS paratroopers" I remember reading that they were a penal battalion and therefore not very motivated, but you addressed that point and clarified further their combat quality. Kudos to you, sir!
Their command left quite a bit to be desired, but the entire plan was flawed. Deeply so. The Nazis consistently underestimated the reaction time of the partisans but also their ability to hold a battle line.
maybe-this was the some kind part of eastern front..In YUG there was 10 german divissions, 122 divission on Russia and 12 divission in western europe..So Balkan was good mess
When I was a kid in the early 90s my mom would take me to the local library and make me read biographies about major figures from the 20th century. Marshal Tito was my favorite by far.
My father joined his older brother in the Slovenian mountains in 1943 when he was 16. The middle brother was KIA first battle - shot through the thigh, abandoned, found by the Germans and shot, aged 17. I've been fascinated by what those boys did all of my life since I was a little boy. My mum was Croatian Volksdeutsche & fled Croatia when Partisans took over in mid-1943. She was 8 at the time. She was shunted all over Germany in a refugee train (yep, you actually lived in the train for months at a time), watched Berlin Hamburg and Dresden get flattened. Her father joined the 13th Waffen Mountain Division and was made an Unterofficer (sergeant equivalent). His hip was shattered by artillery fire the first time he saw action & he was promptly pensioned off never having seen an enemy soldier. Had the Partisans discovered the real reason he walked with a cane and a limp they would have shot him. There's a heap of great stories that came out of that mad country. I used to talk to the old vets all the time but they're all dead now.
@@marknovak8471 Brother off my grandmother was in partisans whole war after Germans killed his 17 years old brother and father on 21 oktober 1941..he was student off law then and his personal friends were well known partisans ...but i was younger i was not interested in that so i never ask him anything about it and he died in 2004
Producers of a TV history channel would destroy all that Dr. Felton does. Also, there would be too many commercials, you would actually get about 20 minutes of programing once a week. TH-cam is the best place to view/listen to what Dr. Felton has to teach us.
Teach us? I could learn more off of the back of a box of rice crispies than Felton could ever teach me. If he was my kids history teacher at school, I'd pull them out of class. Mark regurgitates one side of a coin. Every coin has two sides.
@@lysanderkrieg5474 : Yet here you are, yet again. You seem to spend a lot of time in a channel that you purportedly despise. What is this masochistic fetish I wonder, or you just don't know how to change to a different channel? Your own channel perhaps, where you can commit to the work to make it a success?
@@StevenKeery Well, I share your opinion about L. Kriegs comments. However, this report shows a lot of "Wochenschau"-films about the German attack on Crete (Operation "Merkur", may 20th 1941). Probably there was not enough film material on the SS-assault available.
Dear Mark Felton. My grandma was there in the famous 6. Lička Division. She was a partisan nurse. I've heard this story many many times in my childhood. It was bloody hell. EDIT: The 6th Lička Division was part of the famous 1st Proletarian Corps. My grandfather was in the corps and met my grandmother in Drvar during the Skorzeny raid. He was wounded at the Sirmyan front in 1945., the Yugoslav partisan version of the Battle of the Bulge. Grandpa died in 1999. and grandma 2014.
More eye-opening revelations from TH-cam's premier authority on the fascinating insights into the history that nobody else knows about the Second World War. Keep 'em coming, Mark!
Do not forget that the great leader was sitting in his "marshall" uniform (what major battle he won?) together with his much young mistress frozen in fear, ready to surrender until an old Serbian commie came and was forced threaten them at the gunpoint to move their asses...becaouse they found escape route out of the cave..and US plane was waiting for them to ferry them to liberated Italy
Tito and the men surrounding him were all veterans of the Spanish civil war, where they fought in the international communist brigades. The SS troup were facing a though and battle hardened oponent
And most importantly, well armed and just as importantly, knew each other which makes such a difference it's not even close, it's why the U.S. Army sucked so much treating it's units like a machine, lose a part replace it, lose a man shove in a new one, you heard at the end where they withdrew them for rest and refitting, that's such a key important component of how the Germans constantly extracted more blood than they lost, just could never extract enough
Also no, the U.S. Army really never learned this lesson, not until the 1980's when they went through a total doctorial change and became possibly for the first arguable time a legitimately thoroughly professional ground force as opposed to naval and air which had always had the luxury of getting the best of the best to begin with, and often still do, the ground pounders nowadays couldn't be more different both in how they fight and how it's structured at the lowest levels, plus we can have blacks (and sadly women), command troops in battle now, which is good (except for the women thing, stay out of close-in ground combat
The Communist had superior numbers and prepared positions, and still took heavier casulties then the SS. Communist are only good at one thing, killing unarmed civilians.
It's amazing how many obscure, or little-known stories from the war there are. I recognized some of the parachute traing film clips showing former boxer Max Schelling as a teacher in how to exit a plane and how to roll when you actually land. Keep it up, please.
Thank you, I always enjoys your channel. I did a 6 month tour in Drvar as part of the stabilization force some years ago. As a former paratrooper, I could only imagine dropping in on such a nasty DZ. Perhaps it was a little more open in 1944. It was interesting to see the fuselage of one of the DSF 230 gliders on the outskirts of the town. Landing in one of those on such rough terrain just as bad. Very poor Recce and planning on that Op.
The stepfather of my stepfather was there with Tito's personal guard. After the war he continued his career as professional gambler. Being a war hero he was forgiven the occasional robbery, forgery ... and never went to prison. He always carried.
@@andro7862 Tito's island to deal with Stalinists was neither freezing cold, nor some enormous forced-labor camp and above all not used to relocate large group of civilians. Therefore it's quite a stretch to call it a "gulag". Also, the Soviets dealt with the Stalinists themselves following the death of Stalin in 1953. Nobody missed them as they all either were lapdogs or opportunists.
My late grandmother and grandfather were in that battle, 1st Proletarian Brigade. She said that they were sleaping near the tito's shelter (cave) and early in the morning she was awakened by the sound of Stuka's, they destroyed centre of the town in first attack. This was a mistake because they alarmed whole brigade. Immediately after they have seen first gliders and paratroopers they started to shoot them in the air. I remember that I was joking with her about geneva convention and no shooting on paratroopers in the air. She would always say - to hell with that convention :) Nice channel Mark ;)
The Germans themselves and just about every faction in the war disregarded that convention anyways. On paper it makes sense but in reality when men and supplies are being dumped on your head, it makes no sense to allow them to land.
Convention does not prohibit shooting paratroopers. Whether the soldier is in the air, in a bus, train, or under water, for that matter, they are legitimate targets, especially during assault operation. Go to your grandmother's grave and apologize.
Eastern Approaches, Fitzroy Maclean's autobiography is one hell of a read and has lots of details about Tito and the war in Yugoslavia, along with the formation of the Special Air Service.
It also has an excellent report of a Stalinist show trial during the purges of the 1930s in the first third of the book. The second third is about SAS operations in the Western Desert.
Agreed - Maclean's book is an excellent read. Loved the part about his travels in the pre-war Soviet Union and how one day when he was walking in the Caucasus the KGB spies who had been trailing him came up and asked if he wouldn't mind stopping at one of the spies' homes up ahead for dinner!
Is there the most important detail that Stalin executed the original Tito and replaced him with the brilliant Russian general? My great grandfather personally knew the original Tito.
@@mikepette4422 Russian Tito did a mistake dealing with Stalin so he knew that Stalin will replace him. This is why he put Yugoslavia on the line to save his skin. The gamble was successful for him.
So many wars affect our lives today. WW2 was spawned by WW1, which in turn was spawned by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which was probably spawned by the Napoleonic Wars, etc. Sadly, military history has fallen out of favor in history classes in favor of social economic stuff and political correct subjects.
@@Elatenl Because what happened 80 years does affect our lives today, and lets not forget that the radical left is doing its utmost to erase our past, so apparently it IS important to them. And if it is that important to radicals to tear down statues and change the history curriculum then it should be important to us too. Because don't cry wtf when your child comes home from school talking to you about your white privilege and how you are racist. Radicals have taken over the education system because we didn't deem it important enough to bother with teaching our kids what happened 80 years ago, and now they're using it to create more radicals. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” - George Orwell
Thank you Mark sincerely for posting this material..my grandad was there -The Third Licka Proletarian brigade ..our beloved former Yugoslavia ❤️warm greetings from Montenegro 🇲🇪
@Kafa kafica read the history the Yugoslav partisans were the only ones to liberate their own country. Remember by then the Red Army was trying to take Germany and other Central European states. Tito’s partisans were relatively well organised, well armed and knew their own terrain. They had been tiring down relatively large numbers of Nazi troops for a long time before.
This timing is impeccable, I just finished reading Eugene Systems post about their ongoing work for the Nemesis: Raid on Drvar DLC for Steel Division Two. This gives some nice context! Great video as always Mark.
The SS 500 para unit were badly deployed, the local German commander attacked before Skorzeny' men (the Brandenburg unit) was ready. Drvar is a very wild area, well worth a visit . 36 Celsius in Bosnia today.
The resources that went into this operation could have supplemented the 91st Luftland Division, Panzer Training Battalion 100, and the 6th Parachute Regiment in Normandy. Air support included. D-Day was just weeks away. But yeah I guess the Italian front was important and Army Group E was just across the Adriatic getting squeezed with the recent loss of the Crimea to the Soviets.
Everytime Mark makes a YUGOSLAVIA video, everything else becomes secondary.. Air, Food, Sex, Love, everything becomes secondary.. watching the video is the most important thing. I stop everything I'm doing.. I even forget to breathe.. these Yugoslav videos are the best, I have watched them all atleast 3 times over.. thank you Mark.. PLEASE make more detailed videos Yugoslavia, because SOOOO much happened here in WW2. Explain the Chetnik. The USTASE. All the partisans, Soviet support, soo much..
@Kafa kafica In fact you need to go in the late 19 century in those time the idea to unite small south slave tribes become a thing. It started in areas under austro hungarian empire or better in Zagreb and Ljubljana. Idea wasnt bad unfortaly the Serbian king in the 1918 didnt realy understud a concept, and take new lands as a gift to him, thats why was only a month after the merger all ready a clashes between Serbian king and Croatian & Slovenian politicians.
@@altergreenhorn No haga waga in our clear and croatian Adriatic see!!! Adriatic see is part of land dear God gave to Croats!!! There is a one legend about CRO land,we moustly bealiv,in time when dear Lord has giving a land to nations,in one moment he sow a man still wait in front of his door!!! He asked him what's up??? He said:Dear Lord,you forgotten on us,Croats!!!! No land for us??? Dear God feels guilty,he sad,i am sorry,i'll give you piece of my own land!!!! That is thrue,there is no beaty like Croatia,bcs.of that,everybody try to take our land,but we,proud sons of Croatia,will defend it till last breath!!!!!💪💪💪👊
Great video. Using basic round canopy parachutes to deploy troops during the day into rugged terrain was a recipe for disaster. It’s a surprise the SS didn’t loose more men.
I've read about this assault in an excellent book with maps and battle assessments. Partisans knew very well that the Germans could mount an airborne assault, so they positioned a lot of troops in and around Drvar. Along with Tito's personal guard there were elements of one of the (veteran) Proletarian divisions positioned close by, and when the Germans landed, they were rushed into the fight with the sole intention to bog them down and deny them effective maneuver - that's why the Partisans had such high casualties. In the end this was a battle of small numbers of excellent quality paratroop soldiers against numerous Partisans with very high morale and knowledge of local terrain.
The partisans even had some light tanks of the American Stuart type. Wonder why the Allies didn't send the partisans some Locust M22 tanks (glider-borne) for evaluation.
I didn't think I would ever have a criticism to make about any of your videos, but here we are. The Raid to rescue Mussolini was conducted by regular Fallschirmjagers and the only SS man there was Otto Skorzeny himself. He did not command the raid and was only along as an observer and armed only with a pistol. Luckily for him, the Italian soldiers didn't fire a shot. However he got himself in the front of the photos as if he had done it all by himself. He then insisted on going on the Feisler Storch plane with Mussolini and badly overloaded it with his bulk. The pilot managed to make a successful takeoff, despite this great handicap and once back in Berlin, Skorzeny made the most of the story to better his position.But, if it hadn't been for the skill of the pilot, Skorzeny would have gone down in history as the dead weight that killed Mussolini.
Mark very accurate view on the particular offensive by Germans, the only thing that needs to be corrected is that initial partisan position was stormed for there was only 3 companies ( 300 men or so) guarding the perimeter, plus at that time there was a military school in Drvar, with teachers roughly (80 to 100 man) , main partisan force came from place called Trubari wich is some 20 km away from Drvar. The unit that stopped the Germans is 3. Lika Proleterian Brigade, unit that really distinguished itself during that battle. In a 15-hour battle it nearly destroyed entire SS regiment. They fought a good fight that day, I think they deserve to be mentioned.
As a Canadian stationed in Lahr Germany I ended up in Yugoslavia in 1991 after Tito died and the civil war broke out. As a young Captain I was deeply affected by the cruelty show by both sides against each other. My mission changed from a cease fire monitor to a cease fire violator monitor very quickly and I left there with a completely different perspective on humanity. To this day I think about my time there and how proud I was to have tried to help the people who suffered there. Thanks Mark for showing me how this all came about. 🇨🇦
@@romanlesjak3844 I mean 200 000 rats who sowed all the death and destruction on Croatia and bosnia in the 90s. They just escaped scott free when they should've been hanged by their guts
Stalin hated Tito, he tried to take Tito out few times but after 3rd attempt Tito said that 'somebody in Moscow tried to do-away with me but failed thrice, but If, I have to take out somebody in Moscow than I can assure you I will only try once & will be successful' The message was received & understood to the concerned quarters in Moscow and Tito lived till his natural death 1980.
"... if you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow and I won't have to send another." (Tito to Stalin. Imagine the balls it takes to send such a message)
0ne of the bloody-joe-sent goons to take out Tito was captured & taken airborne in a biplane by Tito's guards. There he was summoned to spill the beans 'bout the plot or splattered on Yugoslav soil as fertilizer. He preferred to spill the beans.
@@AirsoftReviewArgentina seeing the mountains of Yugoslavia & remembering the nazi mishaps there, awfoul-joe thought thrice & called it a ''well, you can't win them all ...'' & went back to his easier domestic purges.
@Airsoft Review Argentina: Imagine the scene in Tito's office. As he finishes dictating his message to Stalin, the late Charles Bronson looks up from his Belgrade newspaper for a moment sighs, and continues reading..
@@andro7862 i dont know the exact unit. But i can tell you stories of my other great grandfathers. One was forced to go to the Italian army, he participated in the Battle of El Alamein, (he was an ethnic Slovene) then, he was captured by the French foreign legion. He was then given to the British and was trained by them. And sent into a prekomorska partisan brigade, and went to Yugoslavia. The 3rd great grandfather was in the Ustaše, in 1942 he went to the Partisans. He joined the ustaše because he was a Croatian patriot, he was later sent to goli otok.... The 4th was a Croatian who served in the Dalmatinska udarna brigada, he fought in battles from Split all the way to Trieste
@@okm8750 Wow that's an amazing family history. I'm sure with more details I can find their units. My grandpa never told us his unit name, but we later deduced he was in the in the 11th Udarna. The Slovene one could possibly have been in the 5th Prekomorska. Did he ever mention spending time in London, England? If he was there then he was in the 5th. The 4th great-grandfather then fought the same battles as my grandpa, though not sure if he was also in the 11th brigade.
@@andro7862 It is possible he spent his time in England. He was trained as the Airplane signaler guy. I don't know that much about the 4th great grandfather. The only thing i know is that he was in a udarna brigada, and was present during the liberation of Trieste. The only person i have a lot of details about is the great grandfather that served in the Ustaše. He first served in the Peasent's (Maček's) civil protection. Paramilitary wing of HSS, he was a officer of the Ustaše. Upon realising that Pavelić was a brutal, bad man. As i said, joined the Partisans in 1942.
But can you imagine some German grandad telling his grandson about when he was a SS Fallschirmjäger and his mission was to capture Tito. (only saying as when I was in the British Army based in Germany, I dated a German girl, her dad was a paratrooper, he lost both his legs at Crete, he couldn't speak English, but we drank beer and sang roll out the barrels)
Fitzroy MacClean wrote an excellent memoir on his time in the Sovjet Union North Afrika and Yugoslavia "Eastern Approaches". A great read I can Highly recommend.
@@KokkiePiet I was thinking about how you could do a great book "The Great British Warrior eccentrics of WW2" for such a hierarchal conformist society they seem to find room for them in wartime. Alister, Jack Churchill, Orde Wingate and David Stirling immediately spring to mind but I am sure that a few moments reflection would provide an embarrassment of riches.
My Grandfather always told stories about hunting for Tito during WW2 - he claimed, he saw him a few times but didn't even take aim. I guess these were the kind of self-developing stories which grew and grew over the decades (from "we heard rumors Tito is near" to "I had him in a head-lock, but he slipped out"). Well-told stories though, the whole dinner table turned into a strategic map of western Slavonia until my grandmother decided to bring the cake...
@@baki4341 16. Jäger/ 721. Regiment (so it says on his certificate for the Wound-badge in black) I don't think there's much light to shed unlike you know the whereabout of Tito and my grandfathers unit. He was in an outfit that saw heavy fighting against the partisans, was for a long time stationed in Banja Luka and had to do a lot of patrols together which Croatian units, who always stumbled about each other when it came to dealing with Serbian prisoners. One could summarize his view on WW2 in one quote: "Als die Amerikaner kamen, haben wir sofort unsere Gewehre weggeschmissen und sind uns ergeben gegangen." (When the Americans came, we threw aways our weapons on the spot and went for surrender.)
He was leader of the Non-Aligned movement. If it didn't dissolve, today it would include India, Africa, South America,Middle East, South-East Asia and China. That's a lot of people. I think both USA and USSR were competing to give Tito best equipment in order to gain his favor.
Though pretty ballsy to jump into such an environment, whoever approved the use of paratroopers in such a fashion should've been drop-kicked. WTF? Jumping into a mountainous area, no real DZ to speak of, not to mention crap LZs for the gliders. Then, to top it off, two daylight jumps with one at mid-day when the enemy is alerted to the assault. Rather amazing the 500th had anyone survive.
Same thing in Crete. The German intel on Crete was so off the mark that I wonder if it was a deliberate attempt at sabotage. If not, it was sheer stupidity.
The video didn’t really get into it much, however the 5XX series was officially a penal battalion, (mostly what would be considered.low level infractions today - gambling, falling asleep, etc). Nonetheless expendable and if they failed it wouldn’t be a large issue. The volunteers were NCO’s, Comms, etc. German drops were low level chute pops and you are on the ground (the chutes didn’t offer any options for navigating). The intel on the drop zone from aerial recon turned out to be bad, what was thought to be a stronghold turned out to be a walled cemetery. The good - the walls offered some protection throughout the battle, however Titos forces had the high ground and Tito was not in the immediate area. The unit was reformed after this operation, and ultimately was no longer a penal unit as the 600th.
Is it true that there have been rumors the real Tito had been replaced by the Soviets and that's why he celebrated two different birthdays amongst many other difference between the early Tito and later years Tito? My family is from Yugoslavia and I remember hearing these stories as a child, I am an American today.
@@SuckerFreeGear yes rummors are that Tito was killed in Russia and replaced with soviet general.. real tito had two fingers on left hand wounded and after he came back from Russia he had no more wounds..
Dear Dr.Felton I very glad that you covered a battle story from jugoslavia. I was very young when jugoslavia collapsed, but I remember this battle from our history books. It was a battle known under a code name " horse jump" and it was prased as a battle in which partisans sacrificed them selves to protect Tito. The Germans entered the cave but the only thing they find was Tito uniform. It was a subject of many movies and television series in former jugoslavia ment to show the courage and sacrifice of the partisans. Maybe in future you may find other stories from the battles in jugoslavia. Best regards
When He died, there was a world gathering event on the funeral. Almost every country had a representative that day. Can't think of any leader today that would have the same thing.
I did read about this raid though that was some time ago. So it is good to hear the details again. I first came to know about Sir Fitzroy Maclean through his book Eastern Approaches. An excellent book and well worth a read. He was part of the British Embassy in Moscow before the war and he would explore parts of the Soviet Union by dint of the fact that those who were following to so terrified of Stalin that no one would stop him. When war broke out he was not allowed to leave the diplomatic corp to enlist so he became an MP which now meant he could no longer be a diplomat. But it did mean he could join the British Army. He served in North Africa, Persia and then as liaison to Tito. If you get a chance then this book should be on your reading list.
Definitely second the book recommendation - not having it right in from of me, I'm thinking maybe there is some mistake in the video, though? IIRC the person identified as Maclean at 2:50 or thereabouts doesn't at all resemble pictures of him from the book. But the guy front and center with dark hair and glasses standing next to Tito (at about 9:30) *does*. In the book Maclean talks about how the partisans were fascinated by his US 1911 pistol - think I've seen some color footage on YT of him shooting it with them... The film "Force 10 from Navarrone" is supposed to be based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, but there is an account in Eastern Approaches of a very similar, supposedly non-fiction mission? - never have sorted that one out...
This wasn't an operation (Unternehmen Rösselsprung) undertaken by "elite troops". The 500th SS Parachute Battalion was a *penal* unit, and many of the officers assigned to it wanted out when they found out what it was (Source: Osprey Raid, Knight's Move and the excellent book "Kommando"). However, they fought very well and, at least afterward, could've been considered 'Elite' or at least 'Good'. But really, they were mainly desperate. Desperate to win back their ranks and reputations. Which they did - those that made it.
Unit was mixed bag. There were volunteers, and there were volunteers who did some mild disciplinary infractions (AWOL, drunk on duty, stealing ..) and wanted to clear their honor. Overall, they were well trained and motivated, but the whole battalion was practically wiped out that day. Later they were reformed with lower quality recruits and were never elite unit or even trained to perform parachute jumps.
apart from some obvious disasters the german penal units usually performed pretty good in the war, the soviets even copied them by creating their own penal units like the germans.
Dr.Felton always surprises us with some detailed piece of history. Rare photos, details of missions, etc. keep your followers motivated by the way you tell us 2WW history.
This should have been a much more detailed, accurate and interesting article... just rehashed in a poor manner. Seems to have been dashed off in a hurry to meet a target time
P{ossible Topic: New York was home to an amazing number of Royal Navy deserters during WW2 who traded American goodwill for the British uniforms and a line of bull. I believe they numbered in the thousands. What happened to them after the war and did the British Government go looking for them?
There were also many thousands of British soldiers who deserted in France after D. Day. I always wondered what happened to them after the war. There were also thousands of G I,s who deserted and hijacked trucks and sold the supplies on the black market in Paris. I read about this in the book "A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan.
Traded goodwill for uniforms and a line of bull...Can you be more clear, you sound as though you're quoting something you must've read? Thousands of Navy deserters from the Channel would be very difficult to understand, so you mean the Pacific theatre specifically?
Tito was a real badass unlike murderous Stalin who tried to kill him22 times.After the last attempt, Tito sent a letter to Stalin telling him " If you don't stop sending killers, I am sending one to Moscow and I won't have to send a second one!."
As I understand it, that was written in a letter from Tito that was found in Stalin's safe, after his death. That must have surely contributed to Stalin's paranoid mania in his last year's!
I love learning about these small actions on less well know fronts, that are largely forgotten. History is always interesting. But learning something completely new is brilliant.
@@DrJones20 well not over here in the balkans but the rest of the world yes its good felton educated them here i hope he does more videos about partisans
Another good one Mark. Bugger jumping into that terrain. Fractured a vertebrae after the airforce dropped us 400m off the dz into rocky ground. Battalion had 40 percent casualties and we weren't being shot at like those fallschirmjager.
Tito after the war became leader of the Non-Aligned movement. 120 member states roughly 55% of the World population. One of the quotations within the Non-Aligned Declaration is "Peace can not be achieved with separation, but with the aspiration towards collective security in global terms and expansion of freedom, as well as terminating the domination of one country over another". In my opinion, next to Hitler (in terms of how much influence on World's history an individual had), Tito is the most influential person of 20th century. His funeral attended four kings, 31 presidents, six princes, 22 prime ministers, and 47 ministers of foreign affairs and it was the largest state funeral in history. Truly a remarkable man.
My Dad was there! He was a communications (wireless) sergeant in the R.A.F. He parachuted into Yugoslavia with Randolph Churchill and had to spend a night in a tent with him. When I was a schoolboy in the 1950's he was always telling anyone who would listen about his experiences, but most of it went over my head. What I do recall was his contempt for Churchill's son, and how he and Tito had to stealthily circle round a tree to avoid being spotted by a German aircraft. He presumably was the wireless operator for the mission that rescued Tito. He died in 1993 and I only wish I had quizzed him more. I know that after Fitzroy McLean, who was his boss, published "Eastern Approaches" he corresponded with him, with, I believe some factual corrections. He never went back to Yugoslavia.
It's a great loss for the history of ww2 ( especially in Yugoslavia) that your father didn't leave memoirs or writings of any kind about his wartime experiences. It would be interesting to read, no doubt.
As we , ex Yugoslavs , would say, eternal glory and gratitude to your father for his service and may he rest in peace.
Did he learned little our languagle?
Can you more write his experiance here?
Thank you greeting fromBosnia
Wow.All Respect and Salute for your father and other staff.Thanks to Mr Churchill who decided to help our PARTISANS. trully Heroes, contrary to all Nazi Colaborators from other side(Croatian Ustasa,serbian Cetnics,Nedic gendarms,Ljotic Fashist movement...and many others).
God bless your family and your father. I’m sure he was a great man
@@Zagorec-p2y My father was the SS Gruppenfuhrer General who had secret mission to capture son of CHurchil and demand UK extradite churchil to Hague to stand trial for war crimes. Mission was secret that even Hitler Himmler and Goebels didn't know about it. They put tother 100,000 SS troops armed with special guns, and they used C-130 planes to drop 10,000 airbone IFVs.
I knew a guy who made this jump. He was shot in the foot. He was a Communications officer. He was captured at Nijmegen later in the war and sent to the US as a POW and came back to the US and became a citizen in the 50's.
ended up good for him, I'd say!!
He was an SS man?
@@Cheeki_breeki6 yes he was an SS- UnterStrumfuhrer.His name was Gerhard Franzky. He wrote a book called learning to walk He was shot in the foot while coming down in his chute and had to learn how to walk again hence the title.
@@mikebrase5161 fantastic piece of additional info, thankyou sir!
it is always worth reading comments under Dr Feltons videos, there are quite often little beautys of additional info on the videos subject.
@@dannythomson5239 and from a generous and generally polite group of commenters
Tito has SS and Stalin coming for his head and he outlived both.
Tačno, a i Staljinu je poslao pismo posle ne znam koliko pokušaja staljina da ubije tita..." nemoj vise slati ljude da me ubiju jee cu biti prinudjen da ja posaljem agente pri cemu necu imati potrebu dabih saljem drugi put" Opasan Tito bio pravi diplomata.
@@LoFiOAS1S Talk American! Ya heathen Frenchman.
And Tito outlived Michael.
@Andrija Garovic He was being sardonic
@@richardm3023 It's Tito's famous letter to Stalin.
“Stalin. Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send another.”
As a historian of world war 2, this is the most complete and accurate channel I’ve come across! Hats off to you and a fine production!
Yes i agree
Филм кључ
you do not have a clue
and you and he are communist agitators
As an ex-paratrooper I always marveled at how the German's seemed to dive out the doors of their aircraft. We trained to go feet first into the prop blast so as not to get the risers and lines twisted.
..They only had one riser, attached to their backs. That meant they couldn't steer their chute except by waving their arms around wildly. They also jumped without heavy weapons and had to recover them from containers. That cost them a lot of casualties, especially in Crete.
I can see the positives of not jumping out with your “kit” as the British say. But to jump out with your weapons; is crazy! If you can’t somewhat control where you’re going to land? It most likely will be your last time alive if you didn’t get shot coming down or killed by hitting the ground? You were most likely going to get killed trying to get to your weapons, unbelievable! @@louisavondart9178
@@louisavondart9178 I heard the German parachute design was the worst of any nation in the war. As a result, they suffered a high number of injuries on landing, reducing their battle effectiveness from the off. The Soviets actually were said to have the best parachutes.
What a coincidence, an hour ago i was asking myself if SS paratroopers ever existed. I was amazed to see that YES they did. And just now Mark Felton posted a brand new video on them !
The youtube god has answered your questions and prayers.
They had impressive kit th-cam.com/video/RbxRKXKht3Y/w-d-xo.html
Dr. Felton is as usual, Johnny on the spot.
And they got completely fucked!
Yep, just the 500.Battalion, later reorganized as 600.Bat. (which I believe didn't get to jump at all). They all used Luftwaffe FJ equipment (camo smocks, helmets, and of course the parachutes), so in combat, they looked almost identical to their Luft counterparts. Most of the film footage Mark uses here is of the regular Fallschirmjaeger, but there's so little film or photos of the SS guys.
It's so weird this was uploaded today. I was literally just searching this morning if there were any SS fallschirmjäger after a fellow reenactor had brought it up. Another wonderful video.
SS Brandenburger Brigade. Check it out. Compromised Mission.
You are using the word literally incorrectly.
@@Pe6ek dontbelikethatplease ;)
Dude, why you have that B.S for a pic?
DUDE i was litteraly thinking about that too an hour ago ! Was wondering if SS fallschirmjager ever existed and BAM a mark felton video on them. I'm starting to think Mark has some kinds of superpowers
Great Job. You taught us a lot with this one. I never heard of this operation.
It's so secret we barely knew it
Its very well known operation among the Yugoslavs, since primary school, It was called Desant na Drvar..
You can find movie "Desant na Drvar". So old... Black and White movie
I'm in Drvar right now visiting family and Tito's cave is a massive tourist attraction here. Its a pain to climb up there though.
Please put some flowers on this sacred ground. I was marriedcto a Serbian and her pop survived until 1945 wgere he died from kidney disease.hiswife was tortured and spent the next 60 term in an institution. My exwifes mum was looked after in in orphanage and was a very cold and strange woman. Its the aftermath of the war that affects generations to this day. My ex never had a childhood either but a fantastic mother to our children. The best thing her parents did was to immigrate to Australia where we have a large population of Serbian people.
Piss in the cave, just a bunch of communist, that bled the fake made up country called Yugoslavia, right up till the end of 1990s war country was poor, look at Croatia now… land of gold
@@hercg1967 70.73% debt to GDP, what a land of gold genius.
@@edwardcuruvijapenrose5081 I was referring to the beauty of the country
@@edwardcuruvijapenrose5081 Good answer and he forget to mention enormous emigration to europe to find work, Yugoslavia had a economy in the 80 s a lot of countrys wish for.
And in time of big earthquake a lot of coastline was destroyed Yugoslavia build it up again.
People that post these comment are usually the ones that don't live in ex Yugoslavia anymore.
Mark felton is never boring.
Nobody messes with Yugoslava. We prefer to do it ourselves.
Yugoslavia was bored of no one being able to destroy them... so they did it themselves
A sad truth
Stane Dolanc one of Yugoslav high officials and close Tito's aides was asked once by a journalist about rumors that Yugoslavia would disintegrate after Tito's death. He said: "If someone attacks us they will see how united we are." The journalist then asked: "What if no one attacks you?"
@@AA-bz1pr problem is it was an artificial creation so many issues. I did 3 tours there, beautiful country and people were great, just no to each other
@@kieranlillis7121 Its a shame we cant all get along really, but it is what it is
Thank you .My grand grand father fought with him . His name was Josip Surname Broz , Tito .We engaged 33 German divisions during the war .And we won despite all odds. Ideas and longing for freedom are bulletproof .Respect from Beograd mr Felton.
And yet another interesting example of history I knew nothing about until now. Thanks as always for the lesson.
You're good Dr. Felton! When you said "elite SS paratroopers" I remember reading that they were a penal battalion and therefore not very motivated, but you addressed that point and clarified further their combat quality. Kudos to you, sir!
Their command left quite a bit to be desired, but the entire plan was flawed. Deeply so. The Nazis consistently underestimated the reaction time of the partisans but also their ability to hold a battle line.
maybe-this was the some kind part of eastern front..In YUG there was 10 german divissions, 122 divission on Russia and 12 divission in western europe..So Balkan was good mess
When I was a kid in the early 90s my mom would take me to the local library and make me read biographies about major figures from the 20th century. Marshal Tito was my favorite by far.
My father joined his older brother in the Slovenian mountains in 1943 when he was 16. The middle brother was KIA first battle - shot through the thigh, abandoned, found by the Germans and shot, aged 17. I've been fascinated by what those boys did all of my life since I was a little boy. My mum was Croatian Volksdeutsche & fled Croatia when Partisans took over in mid-1943. She was 8 at the time. She was shunted all over Germany in a refugee train (yep, you actually lived in the train for months at a time), watched Berlin Hamburg and Dresden get flattened. Her father joined the 13th Waffen Mountain Division and was made an Unterofficer (sergeant equivalent). His hip was shattered by artillery fire the first time he saw action & he was promptly pensioned off never having seen an enemy soldier. Had the Partisans discovered the real reason he walked with a cane and a limp they would have shot him. There's a heap of great stories that came out of that mad country. I used to talk to the old vets all the time but they're all dead now.
@@marknovak8471 Brother off my grandmother was in partisans whole war after Germans killed his 17 years old brother and father on 21 oktober 1941..he was student off law then and his personal friends were well known partisans ...but i was younger i was not interested in that so i never ask him anything about it and he died in 2004
@@dzonikg is there in his biography a detail that he ordered killing thousands at the end of the war.
Excellent story...told by an accomplished historian and worthy of a TV history channel mini series.
Producers of a TV history channel would destroy all that Dr. Felton does. Also, there would be too many commercials, you would actually get about 20 minutes of programing once a week. TH-cam is the best place to view/listen to what Dr. Felton has to teach us.
I have no idea what you are smoking, but recommend you stop it.
Teach us? I could learn more off of the back of a box of rice crispies than Felton could ever teach me. If he was my kids history teacher at school, I'd pull them out of class. Mark regurgitates one side of a coin. Every coin has two sides.
@@lysanderkrieg5474 : Yet here you are, yet again. You seem to spend a lot of time in a channel that you purportedly despise. What is this masochistic fetish I wonder, or you just don't know how to change to a different channel? Your own channel perhaps, where you can commit to the work to make it a success?
@@StevenKeery Well, I share your opinion about L. Kriegs comments. However, this report shows a lot of "Wochenschau"-films about the German attack on Crete (Operation "Merkur", may 20th 1941). Probably there was not enough film material on the SS-assault available.
Work has been set aside, a new Mark Felton video is available.
Great video again. The history of Yugoslavia is my field of interest. Thank you, Dr. Felton.
He's a historian, not a medic, you dummy.
Dear Mark Felton. My grandma was there in the famous 6. Lička Division. She was a partisan nurse. I've heard this story many many times in my childhood. It was bloody hell.
EDIT: The 6th Lička Division was part of the famous 1st Proletarian Corps. My grandfather was in the corps and met my grandmother in Drvar during the Skorzeny raid. He was wounded at the Sirmyan front in 1945., the Yugoslav partisan version of the Battle of the Bulge. Grandpa died in 1999. and grandma 2014.
She muat be very beautiful
my Grandfather was in the 1st Proletarian Brigade. Bravo to your family!
@@machinegun3133 my great grandpa s brother was in the 2. Dalmatian he was a desetar
I'm from drvar😁
Bless your grandparents. 👍
More eye-opening revelations from TH-cam's premier authority on the fascinating insights into the history that nobody else knows about the Second World War. Keep 'em coming, Mark!
I wouldve stayed awake in history class if Mark was my teacher
Yes mark is the best
U probably wouldn't. Wisdom and interest with things that matter come with age.
You're right,,!!! the video would had helped alot,good day!!
It helps Mark only does WW2, alot of people cant handle 3 hour talks about the Celts.
i killed the pedo historiy teacher
This is a video I was hoping Mark would do.. and he has come through again! Superb
Thanks for this one doc. I love how you are able to mate the topic with interweaving film material.
Thank you for a wonderful video, dr. Felton. Cheers from Ex-Yu.
Great episode on important part of our history
Do not forget that the great leader was sitting in his "marshall" uniform (what major battle he won?) together with his much young mistress frozen in fear, ready to surrender until an old Serbian commie came and was forced threaten them at the gunpoint to move their asses...becaouse they found escape route out of the cave..and US plane was waiting for them to ferry them to liberated Italy
Tito and the men surrounding him were all veterans of the Spanish civil war, where they fought in the international communist brigades. The SS troup were facing a though and battle hardened oponent
Yet they managed from getting completely eliminated. The mission was somewhat success 😉
And most importantly, well armed and just as importantly, knew each other which makes such a difference it's not even close, it's why the U.S. Army sucked so much treating it's units like a machine, lose a part replace it, lose a man shove in a new one, you heard at the end where they withdrew them for rest and refitting, that's such a key important component of how the Germans constantly extracted more blood than they lost, just could never extract enough
Also no, the U.S. Army really never learned this lesson, not until the 1980's when they went through a total doctorial change and became possibly for the first arguable time a legitimately thoroughly professional ground force as opposed to naval and air which had always had the luxury of getting the best of the best to begin with, and often still do, the ground pounders nowadays couldn't be more different both in how they fight and how it's structured at the lowest levels, plus we can have blacks (and sadly women), command troops in battle now, which is good (except for the women thing, stay out of close-in ground combat
The Communist had superior numbers and prepared positions, and still took heavier casulties then the SS.
Communist are only good at one thing, killing unarmed civilians.
@@larsnilsson8782 Both Communists and Nazis alike.
It's amazing how many obscure, or little-known stories from the war there are. I recognized some of the parachute traing film clips showing former boxer Max Schelling as a teacher in how to exit a plane and how to roll when you actually land. Keep it up, please.
Schmeling😊
Been there, half of century later, in a different war. We also couldn't find Tito.
Best comment 🇧🇦
If there were Tito, you wouldn't be there in first place..)
@@andro7862 Poturčeni Srbine tišina
@@inkognitou6982 Facts
@@stonecold6022 and you would end up in Goli Otok with that statement above
Thanks!
I’ve been reading and watching tv shows on WW2 for 40+ years. I never heard anything about this. Thanks again!
I remember reading about this operation as a kid, thank you for the video Dr. Felton.
Thank you, I always enjoys your channel. I did a 6 month tour in Drvar as part of the stabilization force some years ago. As a former paratrooper, I could only imagine dropping in on such a nasty DZ. Perhaps it was a little more open in 1944. It was interesting to see the fuselage of one of the DSF 230 gliders on the outskirts of the town. Landing in one of those on such rough terrain just as bad. Very poor Recce and planning on that Op.
05:10 Max Schmelling training at Stendal before Crete
I saw Big Max
Yup,thought them eyebrows looked familiar!
I missed this history lesson, thanks again Dr. Felton.
Im always fascinated by Marks videos! WWII is so massive and complicated, a person can spend years studying the war
Very true
The stepfather of my stepfather was there with Tito's personal guard. After the war he continued his career as professional gambler. Being a war hero he was forgiven the occasional robbery, forgery ... and never went to prison. He always carried.
Ofc he did, if you were with tito or commie party, you were untouchable
@@vanja2565 Tell that to the stalinists who ended up in a gulag.
@@andro7862 what do they have to do with any of this?
@@andro7862 Yeah Tito was cool like that
@@andro7862 Tito's island to deal with Stalinists was neither freezing cold, nor some enormous forced-labor camp and above all not used to relocate large group of civilians. Therefore it's quite a stretch to call it a "gulag". Also, the Soviets dealt with the Stalinists themselves following the death of Stalin in 1953. Nobody missed them as they all either were lapdogs or opportunists.
My late grandmother and grandfather were in that battle, 1st Proletarian Brigade. She said that they were sleaping near the tito's shelter (cave) and early in the morning she was awakened by the sound of Stuka's, they destroyed centre of the town in first attack. This was a mistake because they alarmed whole brigade. Immediately after they have seen first gliders and paratroopers they started to shoot them in the air. I remember that I was joking with her about geneva convention and no shooting on paratroopers in the air. She would always say - to hell with that convention :)
Nice channel Mark ;)
The Germans themselves and just about every faction in the war disregarded that convention anyways. On paper it makes sense but in reality when men and supplies are being dumped on your head, it makes no sense to allow them to land.
@@gormros It's not against any convention to shoot on airbourne troops. Only unarmed pilots
@@phildoddhistoriaantiqua Ever heard about like any other country ever? Soivet had concentration camps long before Hitler even thought about it.
@@phildoddhistoriaantiqua No but you can't say it was something new and unique.
Convention does not prohibit shooting paratroopers. Whether the soldier is in the air, in a bus, train, or under water, for that matter, they are legitimate targets, especially during assault operation. Go to your grandmother's grave and apologize.
Eastern Approaches, Fitzroy Maclean's autobiography is one hell of a read and has lots of details about Tito and the war in Yugoslavia, along with the formation of the Special Air Service.
It also has an excellent report of a Stalinist show trial during the purges of the 1930s in the first third of the book. The second third is about SAS operations in the Western Desert.
Agreed - Maclean's book is an excellent read. Loved the part about his travels in the pre-war Soviet Union and how one day when he was walking in the Caucasus the KGB spies who had been trailing him came up and asked if he wouldn't mind stopping at one of the spies' homes up ahead for dinner!
Is there the most important detail that Stalin executed the original Tito and replaced him with the brilliant Russian general? My great grandfather personally knew the original Tito.
@@tongobong1 oh yes of course ! yes indeed. that would explain why soviet /yugoslav relations were so warm and cordial after the war .... right ?
@@mikepette4422 Russian Tito did a mistake dealing with Stalin so he knew that Stalin will replace him. This is why he put Yugoslavia on the line to save his skin. The gamble was successful for him.
I am happy to listen to M. Felton, because his videos remind me oldschool documentaries used to be aired on tv once upon the time.
Ah Mark Felton, the best WW2 narrator and teacher out there. Awesome channel, learned more here than in any history class
It amazes me how little most people know about WW2. If they could only realize how much it still affects our lives today...
unfortunately so true !
So many wars affect our lives today. WW2 was spawned by WW1, which in turn was spawned by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which was probably spawned by the Napoleonic Wars, etc. Sadly, military history has fallen out of favor in history classes in favor of social economic stuff and political correct subjects.
@@Elatenl I think the answer is a well known saying by George Santayana: "those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it."
@@Elatenl Because what happened 80 years does affect our lives today, and lets not forget that the radical left is doing its utmost to erase our past, so apparently it IS important to them. And if it is that important to radicals to tear down statues and change the history curriculum then it should be important to us too. Because don't cry wtf when your child comes home from school talking to you about your white privilege and how you are racist. Radicals have taken over the education system because we didn't deem it important enough to bother with teaching our kids what happened 80 years ago, and now they're using it to create more radicals.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” - George Orwell
Thank you Mark sincerely for posting this material..my grandad was there -The Third Licka Proletarian brigade ..our beloved former Yugoslavia ❤️warm greetings from Montenegro 🇲🇪
6th, he thanked them very well by forbidding in 1970 last Serb cultural society "Prosveta" , bunch of idiots anyway ha ha
Tito was a real thorn in the side of the Germans in occupied Yugoslavia. Well done Mark for highlighting this story in a well produced video.
So much so that his partisans liberated Yugoslavia not the Red Army plus he irritated the hell out of Stalin after the war
@@nigeh5326 that more so the position of the area versus anything else, really quite at the cusp
@Kafa kafica read the history the Yugoslav partisans were the only ones to liberate their own country. Remember by then the Red Army was trying to take Germany and other Central European states. Tito’s partisans were relatively well organised, well armed and knew their own terrain. They had been tiring down relatively large numbers of Nazi troops for a long time before.
@Kafa kafica Reading your comments here i am not sure that history is your strongest subject, mauby you should stick to some cartoons instead!
@Kafa kafica I have no idea where you took the exams, obviously you haven't learned absolutely nothing
This timing is impeccable, I just finished reading Eugene Systems post about their ongoing work for the Nemesis: Raid on Drvar DLC for Steel Division Two. This gives some nice context! Great video as always Mark.
It takes lot of your effort and time to compile this and other videos. Thank you for sharing.
The SS 500 para unit were badly deployed, the local German commander attacked before Skorzeny' men (the Brandenburg unit) was ready. Drvar is a very wild area, well worth a visit . 36 Celsius in Bosnia today.
Badly deployed? Good.
To hot for me lol
@@Xiphactinus Jocko?
36 degrees Celsius is bearable . Love from Australia xx
The resources that went into this operation could have supplemented the 91st Luftland Division, Panzer Training Battalion 100, and the 6th Parachute Regiment in Normandy. Air support included. D-Day was just weeks away. But yeah I guess the Italian front was important and Army Group E was just across the Adriatic getting squeezed with the recent loss of the Crimea to the Soviets.
Everytime Mark makes a YUGOSLAVIA video, everything else becomes secondary.. Air, Food, Sex, Love, everything becomes secondary.. watching the video is the most important thing. I stop everything I'm doing.. I even forget to breathe.. these Yugoslav videos are the best, I have watched them all atleast 3 times over.. thank you Mark.. PLEASE make more detailed videos Yugoslavia, because SOOOO much happened here in WW2. Explain the Chetnik. The USTASE. All the partisans, Soviet support, soo much..
And Dr. Felton has a lot of material to work with, as Churchill once quipped, 'The Balkans produce more history than they consume."
@Kafa kafica In fact you need to go in the late 19 century in those time the idea to unite small south slave tribes become a thing. It started in areas under austro hungarian empire or better in Zagreb and Ljubljana.
Idea wasnt bad unfortaly the Serbian king in the 1918 didnt realy understud a concept, and take new lands as a gift to him, thats why was only a month after the merger all ready a clashes between Serbian king and Croatian & Slovenian politicians.
GOD DAMN YUGOSLAVIA,PRISON FOR CROATIAN NATION!!!
@Kafa kafica It was nation before Yugoslavia!!!!
@@altergreenhorn No haga waga in our clear and croatian Adriatic see!!! Adriatic see is part of land dear God gave to Croats!!! There is a one legend about CRO land,we moustly bealiv,in time when dear Lord has giving a land to nations,in one moment he sow a man still wait in front of his door!!! He asked him what's up??? He said:Dear Lord,you forgotten on us,Croats!!!! No land for us??? Dear God feels guilty,he sad,i am sorry,i'll give you piece of my own land!!!! That is thrue,there is no beaty like Croatia,bcs.of that,everybody try to take our land,but we,proud sons of Croatia,will defend it till last breath!!!!!💪💪💪👊
Great content! You're making lots of people happy.
Again, thank you for your programs, Mark.
Thanks for sharing as always!
Really interesting! Never heard of this operation before. Top marks as usual to Dr Felton!
Great video. Using basic round canopy parachutes to deploy troops during the day into rugged terrain was a recipe for disaster. It’s a surprise the SS didn’t loose more men.
I've read about this assault in an excellent book with maps and battle assessments. Partisans knew very well that the Germans could mount an airborne assault, so they positioned a lot of troops in and around Drvar. Along with Tito's personal guard there were elements of one of the (veteran) Proletarian divisions positioned close by, and when the Germans landed, they were rushed into the fight with the sole intention to bog them down and deny them effective maneuver - that's why the Partisans had such high casualties. In the end this was a battle of small numbers of excellent quality paratroop soldiers against numerous Partisans with very high morale and knowledge of local terrain.
The partisans even had some light tanks of the American Stuart type.
Wonder why the Allies didn't send the partisans some Locust M22 tanks (glider-borne) for evaluation.
Sounds like something I'd enjoy reading, have you a name at all?. 👍
Great story and information. Thank you Dr. Felton!
I didn't think I would ever have a criticism to make about any of your videos, but here we are. The Raid to rescue Mussolini was conducted by regular Fallschirmjagers and the only SS man there was Otto Skorzeny himself. He did not command the raid and was only along as an observer and armed only with a pistol. Luckily for him, the Italian soldiers didn't fire a shot. However he got himself in the front of the photos as if he had done it all by himself. He then insisted on going on the Feisler Storch plane with Mussolini and badly overloaded it with his bulk. The pilot managed to make a successful takeoff, despite this great handicap and once back in Berlin, Skorzeny made the most of the story to better his position.But, if it hadn't been for the skill of the pilot, Skorzeny would have gone down in history as the dead weight that killed Mussolini.
>tfw you're so feared by the enemy that they send multiple special forces units to take you out
he lived chad life indeed
They failed and he lived. That's some achievement
I'd drink to that ... if I weren't such a Tito-taler.
I'll show myself out now.
Mark very accurate view on the particular offensive by Germans, the only thing that needs to be corrected is that initial partisan position was stormed for there was only 3 companies ( 300 men or so) guarding the perimeter, plus at that time there was a military school in Drvar, with teachers roughly (80 to 100 man) , main partisan force came from place called Trubari wich is some 20 km away from Drvar. The unit that stopped the Germans is 3. Lika Proleterian Brigade, unit that really distinguished itself during that battle. In a 15-hour battle it nearly destroyed entire SS regiment. They fought a good fight that day, I think they deserve to be mentioned.
As a Canadian stationed in Lahr Germany I ended up in Yugoslavia in 1991 after Tito died and the civil war broke out. As a young Captain I was deeply affected by the cruelty show by both sides against each other. My mission changed from a cease fire monitor to a cease fire violator monitor very quickly and I left there with a completely different perspective on humanity. To this day I think about my time there and how proud I was to have tried to help the people who suffered there. Thanks Mark for showing me how this all came about. 🇨🇦
Stop equalizing victims and mourders
@@borisfilipovic5253 aha, so you are trying to tell the Croats were angels and all the yugoslav/serbian troops murders?
@@romanlesjak3844 we were to merciful. We shouldn't have let 200 000 rats escape without proper punishment
@@josephcro2138 you mean Ustasa or who you referr to this 200.000?
@@romanlesjak3844 I mean 200 000 rats who sowed all the death and destruction on Croatia and bosnia in the 90s. They just escaped scott free when they should've been hanged by their guts
Thanks Doctor Felton, are amazing these Pictures from bootcamp .. Interesting the amount of record of the WWII
I really like your programs, they are over the average. All of them, thank you. Keep posting, it does make sense.
Tito the man who Hitler and Stalin couldn’t kill.
Stalin hated Tito, he tried to take Tito out few times but after 3rd attempt Tito said that 'somebody in Moscow tried to do-away with me but failed thrice, but If, I have to take out somebody in Moscow than I can assure you I will only try once & will be successful'
The message was received & understood to the concerned quarters in Moscow and Tito lived till his natural death 1980.
@@exploreradverturer8396 thats badass lol
@@exploreradverturer8396 this didn't happen btw. It's just old bullshit story
A very accurate description of Tito.
@@NoNoseProductionyou are funny
Thanks for these amazing videos. I love history, especially WWII history due to my family's involvement in the war.
"... if you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow and I won't have to send another." (Tito to Stalin. Imagine the balls it takes to send such a message)
0ne of the bloody-joe-sent goons to take out Tito was captured & taken airborne in a biplane by Tito's guards.
There he was summoned to spill the beans 'bout the plot or splattered on Yugoslav soil as fertilizer.
He preferred to spill the beans.
@@Charlesputnam-bn9zy i truly believe they would have gone full war-of-the-worlds fertilizer on that guy. I hope you get the reference...
@@AirsoftReviewArgentina
seeing the mountains of Yugoslavia & remembering the nazi mishaps there,
awfoul-joe thought thrice & called it a ''well, you can't win them all ...''
& went back to his easier domestic purges.
@Airsoft Review Argentina: Imagine the scene in Tito's office. As he finishes dictating his message to Stalin, the late Charles Bronson looks up from his Belgrade newspaper for a moment sighs, and continues reading..
That's a brilliant quote. One of the best (by far), I believe I've ever heard. Thank you.
Thank you Mark for making another Yugoslav video.
Tito or This That, This video is exactly what I have come to expect from That genius Dr Felton
NOTIFICATION: Mark Felton Post a video!
Me: awwwww shoot. Grabs popcorn and starts video
that's right. Time to grab a beer and sit dat ass down!
My great grandfather participated in this event. He was in the partisans, he survived.
Which unit?
My grandfather too!
It was partisan unit named- VI lička division.They was located 5-6 kilometers away from Drvar.
@@andro7862 i dont know the exact unit. But i can tell you stories of my other great grandfathers. One was forced to go to the Italian army, he participated in the Battle of El Alamein, (he was an ethnic Slovene) then, he was captured by the French foreign legion. He was then given to the British and was trained by them. And sent into a prekomorska partisan brigade, and went to Yugoslavia. The 3rd great grandfather was in the Ustaše, in 1942 he went to the Partisans. He joined the ustaše because he was a Croatian patriot, he was later sent to goli otok.... The 4th was a Croatian who served in the Dalmatinska udarna brigada, he fought in battles from Split all the way to Trieste
@@okm8750 Wow that's an amazing family history. I'm sure with more details I can find their units. My grandpa never told us his unit name, but we later deduced he was in the in the 11th Udarna.
The Slovene one could possibly have been in the 5th Prekomorska. Did he ever mention spending time in London, England? If he was there then he was in the 5th.
The 4th great-grandfather then fought the same battles as my grandpa, though not sure if he was also in the 11th brigade.
@@andro7862 It is possible he spent his time in England. He was trained as the Airplane signaler guy.
I don't know that much about the 4th great grandfather. The only thing i know is that he was in a udarna brigada, and was present during the liberation of Trieste.
The only person i have a lot of details about is the great grandfather that served in the Ustaše. He first served in the Peasent's (Maček's) civil protection. Paramilitary wing of HSS, he was a officer of the Ustaše. Upon realising that Pavelić was a brutal, bad man. As i said, joined the Partisans in 1942.
But can you imagine some German grandad telling his grandson about when he was a SS Fallschirmjäger and his mission was to capture Tito. (only saying as when I was in the British Army based in Germany, I dated a German girl, her dad was a paratrooper, he lost both his legs at Crete, he couldn't speak English, but we drank beer and sang roll out the barrels)
hahahaha EPIC!
Once again, extraordinary. Thank you.
4.24 Mark answers my previous question. What a guy.
Fitzroy MacClean wrote an excellent memoir on his time in the Sovjet Union North Afrika and Yugoslavia "Eastern Approaches". A great read I can Highly recommend.
Yes have read, very good indeed !
The book also covers his time in pre-war USSR, insights into the purges, Stalin and his escapades in illegal tourism.
@@sheilbwright7649
Correct, its a great memoir and a great bit of history
@@KokkiePiet I was thinking about how you could do a great book "The Great British Warrior eccentrics of WW2" for such a hierarchal conformist society they seem to find room for them in wartime. Alister, Jack Churchill, Orde Wingate and David Stirling immediately spring to mind but I am sure that a few moments reflection would provide an embarrassment of riches.
@@sheilbwright7649
Would make a great book, I would also include Sergeant Peter King, Pearl Cornioley
It would be nice if Mark felton could make an episode about South Africa's and other Commonwealth nations involvement in WW2
Yes please
Maybe!
the South African border war and the SADF in the 60's would also be very good.
If your going to do all of these could you do a vid on when Britain colonised 25% of the worlds land mass.
PLEASE!
I'd love to see one about the Desert Rats of Tobruk. As an Australian I really like their story.
Tito was like a cat with 9 lives. Thanks Dr. Felton.
He was just lucky Belorussian
Thank You Mr. Felton once again coming from a history fanatic.
U finally did video of yugo, bravo.
My Grandfather always told stories about hunting for Tito during WW2 - he claimed, he saw him a few times but didn't even take aim. I guess these were the kind of self-developing stories which grew and grew over the decades (from "we heard rumors Tito is near" to "I had him in a head-lock, but he slipped out"). Well-told stories though, the whole dinner table turned into a strategic map of western Slavonia until my grandmother decided to bring the cake...
Amazing stories i imagine, what unit was he a part of, maybe that could shed light on wether he actually could have came close
@@baki4341
16. Jäger/ 721. Regiment
(so it says on his certificate for the Wound-badge in black)
I don't think there's much light to shed unlike you know the whereabout of Tito and my grandfathers unit. He was in an outfit that saw heavy fighting against the partisans, was for a long time stationed in Banja Luka and had to do a lot of patrols together which Croatian units, who always stumbled about each other when it came to dealing with Serbian prisoners.
One could summarize his view on WW2 in one quote:
"Als die Amerikaner kamen, haben wir sofort unsere Gewehre weggeschmissen und sind uns ergeben gegangen."
(When the Americans came, we threw aways our weapons on the spot and went for surrender.)
Awesome War Story Mark, in my humble opinion 1 of Your Best in last couple of months 👍 from Perth Australia 🙃
Go Mark McGowan
Tito cleverly played both the Soviets and the West to his advantage. I saw it first hand in Yugoslavian military hardware. Quite the brain and leader.
selling a 3 billion defunct space program to kennedy also works
you saw it first hand? explain...
@@curseditem8354 wait what? 😄
He was leader of the Non-Aligned movement. If it didn't dissolve, today it would include India, Africa, South America,Middle East, South-East Asia and China. That's a lot of people. I think both USA and USSR were competing to give Tito best equipment in order to gain his favor.
It's funny how Vucic has been trying to do the same. Now he's about to recognize Kosovo :DD
Always interesting and enlightening material. Thanks Mark.
Thanks Dr. Felton
Always Enjoy Your Videos
I had never heard of Tito until now. Thanks once again for educating me Dr Felton!
o_O
bruh
Double bruh.
Check out Sterling Hayden, he has a few words about Tito...
Triple bruh
Though pretty ballsy to jump into such an environment, whoever approved the use of paratroopers in such a fashion should've been drop-kicked. WTF? Jumping into a mountainous area, no real DZ to speak of, not to mention crap LZs for the gliders. Then, to top it off, two daylight jumps with one at mid-day when the enemy is alerted to the assault. Rather amazing the 500th had anyone survive.
To the risk-takers go the rewards
@@zefallafez Mass casualties and numerous unmarked graves from a nearly forgotten mission?
@@zefallafez Yeah, an early death and a failed mission lol
Same thing in Crete. The German intel on Crete was so off the mark that I wonder if it was a deliberate attempt at sabotage. If not, it was sheer stupidity.
The video didn’t really get into it much, however the 5XX series was officially a penal battalion, (mostly what would be considered.low level infractions today - gambling, falling asleep, etc). Nonetheless expendable and if they failed it wouldn’t be a large issue. The volunteers were NCO’s, Comms, etc. German drops were low level chute pops and you are on the ground (the chutes didn’t offer any options for navigating). The intel on the drop zone from aerial recon turned out to be bad, what was thought to be a stronghold turned out to be a walled cemetery. The good - the walls offered some protection throughout the battle, however Titos forces had the high ground and Tito was not in the immediate area. The unit was reformed after this operation, and ultimately was no longer a penal unit as the 600th.
greetings from Yugoslavia ! 🇲🇰
sorry my mistake Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ✌️
@@vlatkotemelkov3035 it's called North Macedonia
Greetings! Fyi, your country makes excellent AK's. They shoot great for the money, are are sought after in the US.
Is it true that there have been rumors the real Tito had been replaced by the Soviets and that's why he celebrated two different birthdays amongst many other difference between the early Tito and later years Tito? My family is from Yugoslavia and I remember hearing these stories as a child, I am an American today.
@@SuckerFreeGear yes rummors are that Tito was killed in Russia and replaced with soviet general.. real tito had two fingers on left hand wounded and after he came back from Russia he had no more wounds..
Dear Dr.Felton I very glad that you covered a battle story from jugoslavia. I was very young when jugoslavia collapsed, but I remember this battle from our history books. It was a battle known under a code name " horse jump" and it was prased as a battle in which partisans sacrificed them selves to protect Tito. The Germans entered the cave but the only thing they find was Tito uniform. It was a subject of many movies and television series in former jugoslavia ment to show the courage and sacrifice of the partisans. Maybe in future you may find other stories from the battles in jugoslavia.
Best regards
FELTON u r a genius. FAbulous documentaries.. best ive seen on this topic...
When He died, there was a world gathering event on the funeral.
Almost every country had a representative that day.
Can't think of any leader today that would have the same thing.
Pa da. I ja bih, da se osiguram da je stvarno mrtav. Mnogo je dugovao.
@Billy B
Omg 🤦🏻. Comparing an historic figure like Tito, to a drugged out common criminal like Floyd. Excellent comparison.. 🙄.
@@LegendLength
Biden cant even spell fascism.
HM the Queen I would suggest
@Billy B Over 100 world leaders , how many world leaders beside americans were there ??
I did read about this raid though that was some time ago. So it is good to hear the details again.
I first came to know about Sir Fitzroy Maclean through his book Eastern Approaches. An excellent book and well worth a read. He was part of the British Embassy in Moscow before the war and he would explore parts of the Soviet Union by dint of the fact that those who were following to so terrified of Stalin that no one would stop him. When war broke out he was not allowed to leave the diplomatic corp to enlist so he became an MP which now meant he could no longer be a diplomat. But it did mean he could join the British Army. He served in North Africa, Persia and then as liaison to Tito. If you get a chance then this book should be on your reading list.
Definitely second the book recommendation - not having it right in from of me, I'm thinking maybe there is some mistake in the video, though? IIRC the person identified as Maclean at 2:50 or thereabouts doesn't at all resemble pictures of him from the book. But the guy front and center with dark hair and glasses standing next to Tito (at about 9:30) *does*.
In the book Maclean talks about how the partisans were fascinated by his US 1911 pistol - think I've seen some color footage on YT of him shooting it with them...
The film "Force 10 from Navarrone" is supposed to be based on a novel by Alistair MacLean,
but there is an account in Eastern Approaches of a very similar, supposedly non-fiction mission? - never have sorted that one out...
This wasn't an operation (Unternehmen Rösselsprung) undertaken by "elite troops". The 500th SS Parachute Battalion was a *penal* unit, and many of the officers assigned to it wanted out when they found out what it was (Source: Osprey Raid, Knight's Move and the excellent book "Kommando"). However, they fought very well and, at least afterward, could've been considered 'Elite' or at least 'Good'. But really, they were mainly desperate. Desperate to win back their ranks and reputations. Which they did - those that made it.
Unit was mixed bag. There were volunteers, and there were volunteers who did some mild disciplinary infractions (AWOL, drunk on duty, stealing ..) and wanted to clear their honor. Overall, they were well trained and motivated, but the whole battalion was practically wiped out that day. Later they were reformed with lower quality recruits and were never elite unit or even trained to perform parachute jumps.
Volunteer was used different back than... just saying
apart from some obvious disasters the german penal units usually performed pretty good in the war, the soviets even copied them by creating their own penal units like the germans.
Dr.Felton always surprises us with some detailed piece of history. Rare photos, details of missions, etc. keep your followers motivated by the way you tell us 2WW history.
Thanks for another great vid Mark.
Fascinating as always Professor Felton and once again for me a piece of WW-II history I never knew, many thanks.
This should have been a much more detailed, accurate and interesting article... just rehashed in a poor manner. Seems to have been dashed off in a hurry to meet a target time
P{ossible Topic: New York was home to an amazing number of Royal Navy deserters during WW2 who traded American goodwill for the British uniforms and a line of bull. I believe they numbered in the thousands. What happened to them after the war and did the British Government go looking for them?
I've never heard anything about it
Do you have a source?
There were also many thousands of British soldiers who deserted in France after D. Day. I always wondered what happened to them after the war. There were also thousands of G I,s who deserted and hijacked trucks and sold the supplies on the black market in Paris. I read about this in the book "A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan.
Yes! I always wondered the same
Traded goodwill for uniforms and a line of bull...Can you be more clear, you sound as though you're quoting something you must've read? Thousands of Navy deserters from the Channel would be very difficult to understand, so you mean the Pacific theatre specifically?
Tito was a real badass unlike murderous Stalin who tried to kill him22 times.After the last attempt, Tito sent a letter to Stalin telling him " If you don't stop sending killers, I am sending one to Moscow and I won't have to send a second one!."
As I understand it, that was written in a letter from Tito that was found in Stalin's safe, after his death. That must have surely contributed to Stalin's paranoid mania in his last year's!
Hi Felton, I am watching regularly your 's short clips of WW11, really liked getting historical information. Thanks for your efforts and dedication.
My education is being raised markedly by these videos. Thank you!
Yugoslavia: where victory nor defeat is granted hospitality
that depends, if you are coming to occupy them croats will wait with flowers, serbs on the other hand, well you'll have problems with them.
@@vanja2565 what a dumb comment
Behave, no war gets a welcome you daft quilt!
@@skyguard155 serbs never really came to occupy croatia. Look at others, Hungarians, germans, it's always flowers.
@@vanja2565The Serbs occupied 18.4% of Croatian territory.
Mark thanks for covering this part of the world and WWII stories. Perhaps Bihać Republic might be the next topic. Great work as always.
I love learning about these small actions on less well know fronts, that are largely forgotten. History is always interesting. But learning something completely new is brilliant.
They're not really forgotten at all
@@DrJones20 well not over here in the balkans but the rest of the world yes its good felton educated them here i hope he does more videos about partisans
@@baki4341 I'm not from the balkans and I know about this. I guess I'm a nerd
@@DrJones20 i guess so
Another good one Mark. Bugger jumping into that terrain. Fractured a vertebrae after the airforce dropped us 400m off the dz into rocky ground. Battalion had 40 percent casualties and we weren't being shot at like those fallschirmjager.
Tito after the war became leader of the Non-Aligned movement. 120 member states roughly 55% of the World population. One of the quotations within the Non-Aligned Declaration is "Peace can not be achieved with separation, but with the aspiration towards collective security in global terms and expansion of freedom, as well as terminating the domination of one country over another". In my opinion, next to Hitler (in terms of how much influence on World's history an individual had), Tito is the most influential person of 20th century. His funeral attended four kings, 31 presidents, six princes, 22 prime ministers, and 47 ministers of foreign affairs and it was the largest state funeral in history. Truly a remarkable man.