Operation Gomorrah: The Allied Firebombing of Hamburg
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- In July of 1943, British bombers raided Hamburg, Germany, during the night. Here is what happened.
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Hitler said, when he first took control of Germany. "Give me ten years and you won't recognize Germany." Well, he wasn't wrong about that.
In the first year Germany was already transformed.
G'day,
My mother in law was born in Germany in 1930, she was 3 when Adolf was
Elected
(Unlike George W. Bush, who was appointed by a crooked Court Injunction)...
She was 15 when
Hitler shit himself
As he shot himself...
Her comment was that,
"Hitler was a very clever man, and he was a great leader, but he was betrayed ; and if only someone had
Assassinated
Hitler in
1938..., why - then
Today there would
Still be
Statues of
Der FUHRER
Standing
All over Europe,
Today....!"
She moved to England in 1955, to Australia in 1967, and back to Germany in 2003.
She's still there, in a little Village outside Duisburg, aged 93.
The mental gymnastics and circumloqutions employed by old Nazis are truly
Labrynthine.
Is she happy or sad that nobody composted Adolf in 1938 ?
I still dunno !
Such is life,
Have a good one...
;-p
Ciao !
@@easterworshipper730is not 🚫🚫😊😊😅😊😊😅😅😂
@@jamesrickeard5278 it was.
@@WarblesOnALot...GEORGE BUSH IS DEAD- WHY DON'T YOU SHUT YOUR LOUSY KEISTER?!!
Simon: Every war introduces the world to new horrors
Gulf War Veterans: I hate sand. Its course, and ruff, and irritating. And it gets everywhere.
I just realized Simon hates Star Wars and as such, probably won't get that reference. And that makes me sad
Gulf War syndrome?
@@C21H30O2 That's from all the depleted uranium dust. Lots of projectiles were made with depleted uranium. It isn't good for you. If you snort depleted uranium dust, you'll get GWS too.
But have you heard the tragedy, of Darth….Sand…..?
A lot of dudes got cancer and gulf war syndrome. But yeah dirt isn’t great
My grandfather was a prisoner of war and was forced to help with cleaning up Hamburg after the bombing. The memories of the burned bodies and destruction haunted him his entire life.
:(
My grandpa was taken POW by Americans at a point in the war where most German soldiers taken prisoner simply accepted defeat and were pretty happy to be taken by Americans rather than sovjets. Conditions were apparently luxurious compared to being a soldier on the field for Germany that late in the war, or even worse, a Soviet POW.
My grandpa however was young and well indoctrinated, it occurred to him a lot later, that he was only able to simply leave the POW camp so shortly after arriving because the Americans didn't think anyone was dumb enough to want to leave at that point lol.
He described it as literally being walked in through the front gate and walking out on the other side later that day.
My Polish grandfather was conscripted to the Wehrmacht. Ended up in France. Managed to flee and joined the Polish army in the UK
This was a war crime. One of many, but a big one.
My grandfather was also a pow in Warsaw. Part of the underground in WWII. Showed us his cell now a historical moment downtown. He was such a badass is all I can describe it. Miss him sooo much
@@CorePathway A well-deserved war crime, like all the others that Nazi Germany received. Turnabout is fair play. The Soviet Reunion, losing and retreating, is going to receive payback in spades. Bunker Grandpa destroyed Russia's future for generations.
A firestorm must be one of the most terrifying things to witness imaginable.
The 1871 Peshtigo fire was hugely inspirational in its methods.
Look up some of the wildfire scenes from the movie "Only the Brave" about the Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters. Gives you an idea of a firestorm and agreed, it must be terrifying.
No one will ever know. If you're close enough to see it, you're being sucked into the flames at 200 mph +.
I feel bad for the victims even if they were Germans
@@theawesomeman9821 Many Germans saw through and disagreed with Hitler. Some actively opposed Hitler. Nothing new about a cult of personality seizing control of a country. The Germans had bombed England's civilians. They were just returning I'm kind. Americans would have done the same if Germany had bombed American cities. But I doubt anyone could have known the human toll that was taken.
Warographics: How much history do you *really* want?
Great work Simon & team, a tough watch but valuable. Everyone else: like and subscribe!
How was it tough to watch?
I love hearing about evil Nazis getting firebombed. Same with the heartwarming story of how we firebombed Tokyo.
I listen to Simon's videos like a podcast. This one was rough to listen too.
I would describe WWII in one sentence as "War against civilians on an unprecedented scale." Civilians always suffer in wars but WWII wins 1st prize for the sheer callous scale of it.
Thermonuclear war will make WW2 seem like a schoolyard scuffle.
Learn more Chinese history
Wait until you read what Genghis Kahn did. Yes, the NUMBERS are higher in World war 2 but that is because populations are larger. Ancient warfare was far bloodier when looked at per capita. Genghis Kahn wiped out ENTIRE NATIONS.
@@timothyhouse1622 During the Mongol wars there were simply not enough human beings on planet earth to wrack up the kind of numbers the USSR and the Nazis wracked up. Actually the highest percentages to to civil wars in China which even surpassed Mongol numbers
@@BobHooker Yeah. The Opium Wars. Those British can teach the Saudis a thing or two about cruelty.
If you want to reach into recent history, I'd recommend videos on the Battle of Fallujah or the Battle of Ramadi
Fallujah would be a really good one to cover.
Yes please. I'd watch and share the shit out of any of the recent Middle East battles.
I talked to a US Marine veteran of Fallujah. bout 1/3 of his cranium was gone. He'd been in a gun battle that took ace in the world's largest cemetery there. After a bullet caught him in the head, his buddies held his brains in best they could till he could be medevacted. He spoke like a two year old. Spoke of how his marriage days were numbered because the man she married wasn't there anymore.
I would like to hear about the Siege of Sarajevo that one is pretty underrated and not quite often discussed about.
isn't Fallujah, the bloodiest battle from the Iraq war?
Hamburg is my Hometown, we were taught a lot about WWII in school and operation gomorra and visited the arbeitslager in Neuengamme. there's little evidence left today, of what has happened, but in some central districts there are no, or few old buildings, like Hammerbrook or St.Pauli.
St. Petri church is the only obvious witness, and if you search closely, you can find some bullet holes in the central station.
Hitler never visited the bombed out city. The wrath of God?,no
The script for this was so well written. And, Simon did such a great job of presenting it. It was like being there - terrible, painful and heartbreaking. If I could give it more thumbs up, I would.
Do one about the firebombing of Tokyo. It remains the most destructive air raid in history.
Really? I thought that title belonged to the bombing of Pyongyang during the Korean War. General Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay boasted that he only grounded his planes after they ran out of targets to hit.
Yes, but Pyongyang was a sustained bombing campaign carried out over several years, whereas the first fire raid in Tokyo was over just one night. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they both take a trophy in different categories: Tokyo for the most destructive *singular* air raid, Pyongyang for the most destructive bombing campaign over an extended period.
@@SuperPiratesfan Ah, that makes more sense.
@@pyromania1018 Thank you. :)
Osaka would loose 98% of its buildings during the air campaign over japan.
"The man for whom civilisation was synonymous with target."
That is the best description of Arthur "Bomber" Harris that I have ever heard.
His German counterparts got the noose, Harris got a memorial.
"German factories could be up and running again in a few weeks, but it would take 21 years to raise a new worker" - What a sick disgusting individual...just like the rest of the allied high command!
"Reap the whirlwind" quite literally
That was actually Bomber Harris' motto. His attitude was German civilians had it coming after Germany's Blitz Campaign of England. People wringing their hands over the brutality of the Allied air campaign seem to forget that Germany TRIED to do the exact same thing first. The problem was Germany didn't have a single heavy bomber type in their Air Force. The Allies had two. The Lancaster and the B-29. A single Lancaster bomber could carry over twice the bomb load of the heaviest German bomber.
@@brianeleighton like that makes it any better
@@raphaalf3952 On the contrary it probably made it rather worse for the Germans.
1:30 - Chapter 1 - The age of annihilation
5:25 - Chapter 2 - A secret window
8:40 - Chapter 3 - Louder than bombs
12:10 - Chapter 4 - "Then the lord rained down burning sulfur"
15:35 - Chapter 5 - Fire in the sky
19:10 - Chapter 6 - The reckoning
I'm a year late on this video since it was buried. But would you consider doing a video on LeMay's firebombing raids over Japan as a contrast to Harris' bombing missions in Europe? LeMay himself admitted his behavior was demonstrous and believed had the allies lost the war, he'd have been tried for war crimes. The fire bombings on Japan, like the European ones, were exceptionally heinous and in Japan's case did more damage and took more lives than the nukes did by a wide margin.
Love your videos, Simon. Thank you.
Rule #1.Don't start barbaric wars of aggression. Rule#2. If you start a barbaric war of aggression, don't lose. Rule#3. If you lose, don't expect mercy.
Then again this was Japan we are talking about...its not like they deserved any mercy.
Japan knew what was coming...The potsdam declaration was clear enough. And their leaders were happy to accept as such. "Glorious death of 20 million and all that..." they didnt care for their people and were more than prepared to sacrifice the entire population of the country if the allies landed on japanese soil.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa had taught us that well enough...
i Dont see a war crime...in this war frankly that definition meant little in a total war like this.
Japan was going to fight or die fighting. They would die than surrender, Iwo jima and Okinawa taught us that well enough.
In such a situation, what else do you expect is going to happen.
"Prompt and utter destruction..." , and that is precisely what they got.
@@livethefuture2492You’re just an idiot. Their civilians weren’t the ones who started their war. It’s most definitely a war crime.
Who would like to see an episode on The Boxer Rebellion and the siege of the Legation Forces? Such a fantastic piece of history, and so many dominos sent tumbling that would dictate the future of the world. Holding out against immeasurable odds, MacGyver-ing artillery together, a race against time to relieve the besieged, I think it would be an amazing episode! Keep doing what you do Simon you Legend
To be specific, the first bombing raid on a civilian target was carried out by the twenty-nine Junkers Ju-87B Stuka dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 76, commanded by Captain Walter Sigel of the Luftwaffe.
The air raid took place at 05:40 on 1 September 1939 (though some sources put the time at an hour earlier). The target was the town of Wieluń in Poland: specifically, the hospital in the centre of the town was the primary aim point. The German aircraft dropped a total of 141 bombs on the hospital and surrounding buildings, killing 32 patients and staff. When the hospital caught fire, the German aircraft also machine-gunned the people trying to flee the blaze.
There was no opposition to the attack; Wieluń was undefended. All 29 aircraft returned to base safely.
At least three more bombing attacks were carried out on Wieluń during the course of the day; two more in the morning and one in the afternoon. In total, 46 tons of bombs were dropped on the town in that single day, damaging or destroying over 70% of its buildings. Civilian casualties are not known with precision: there were 127 confirmed and identified dead, but the total number of deaths is likely to have been many times higher than that.
Please do a video on the firebombing of Tokyo! It’s very briefly mentioned in U.S. schools (perhaps a sentence or two), but I’d really like to know more about it.
Excellent video, as always, Simon and team 😊🙌🏻💯👏🏻
Thank you Simon, this is a piece of history that is extremely close to my heart and don't think I have ever seen it that well explained
This is extremely well made - your eloquence is above and beyond.
Years ago I read the book "The Night Hamburg Died". People jumped into canals. The flames gradually heated the water. The people were faced with a choice. Stay in the water and slowly boil to death, or (if they're lucky) drown. Or, get out of the water and roast to death. After the fires subsided, "rescuers" plied the water in boats. Whenever they tried removing one of the half cooked people from the still hot water, they howled on pain because the worst thing in the world for a burn victim is exposure to air. And so, the "rescuers" resorted to administering a bullet to the heads of the survivors as the only form of mercy possible.
Arthur Harris was vilified after the war. There were protests when a statue commemorating him was finally erected. His line of the family died out. Churchill was aware of the level of carnage but did nothing to stop it.
War is HELL, and yet we find ways to continually inflict this kind of torment and destruction upon our fellow man and for what? Now Vladimir is riding with the other 3 horseman and Mariupol is in smoking ruins. Why do they target civilians like this? Great presentation Simon. Spot on.
@@marcoosvald8429 Putin targets civilians to prove no one will or can stand up to him and to make Ukrainians think their deaths are Zelinski's fault for not capitulating.
There is no love or peace in war. Just carnage and death with destruction awaits when war breaks out. Humans at their truest forms. Either they choose to kill or be killed.
Alas, when the aggressor of a war is committed to the slaughter and subjugation of your people, there is no high road to take. It's them or us.
The German people supported the war. It’s because of the German people that all this happened. The big question you need to ask yourself is how did this all start.
This is a great piece of content, thanks, Simon!
Good video, but so dark and brutal that I would have expected to see it rather in Into the shadows. Great work nevertheless Simon and team!
Very well told Simon and ably supported by the backroom Team. Well done all. A+ production.
Another amazing video!
Good work!
Excellent. Thank you.
my Oma survived a similar attack they also dropped phosphorus bombs turning concrete into what looked like boiling water
I hope you talk about more of the various battles or events of the Yugoslav Wars.
I thought Dresden was the award winner for utter destruction & casualties. Learn something every day ! Awesome video Simon.
Dresden was just even more of an atrocity, because previous bomb runs had first herded civilians into the city.
Amazing content. Love every bit of the history
Me too Olukola, have a great day!
I have a Book on the Topic of the Bombings of Hamburg and expecially the Firestorm of 1943. It´s the Hometown of my Father and I will never forget the Images of the Destruction. I don´t remember the War, I was born almost fifthy Years after. Yet, with the Images in these Books, I can imagine the City that´s somewhat my second Home, the Place my Parents work, in Ruins. It´s a harrowing Image, even for those not remembering the War. I can´t imagine how it must be for those who lived during this War
Great job as always for your entire crew, took me a while to get caught up thanks to being asleep in a hospital for the first couple months this year...
Personally this has me wondering if I secretly hate myself. Honest representation of subjects like this involves the most self-destructive habit a veteran can pickup... Reflect on their career without all the self-justification and false bravado, and consider (A) the pain, misery, loss, and hatred a crazy guy whom jumps out of perfectly good aircraft can ignorantly unleashed & (B) you receive shut up medals in the military but without the uniform you're rewarded with the death penalty.
My personal view would be generally this: Survival of the fittest…if it wasn’t you, it would be them. That’s just nature. We like to believe we’re somehow outside of nature and the rules of evolution but in reality; we’re just extremely effective at speeding it up. We think that we should be better than that. That is simple human arrogance though. Many, many animals wage war, they kill and all the rest. We are just intelligent enough to sit back and question ourselves afterwards. Good or bad. We are part of nature and I’d suggest that considering this…there’s nothing specifically bad about you or your actions in the military. As long as you believed that you were doing the right thing, then you did the correct thing. I don’t know if that helps you but when I look at the British military (I’m British) 🇬🇧…I appreciate them doing what was required in order for me to exist and write this message to you.
very nice to watch our history and all what happened in these times
The RAF tested the right mix of bombs already in 1942. On March 29th they attacked the city of Lübeck. While th eloss of life was nothing compared to Hamburg (320 dead, 783 injured), but the complete inner city was destroyed.
There was a very good German documentary in 1983. What added to the value of it, they still had people that lived there and bomber pilotes as eyewitness.
I'm American but I one of my Urgroßmutter survived Operation Gomorrah. She was 77 at the time, refused to go into her bunker and told my Oma that she would rather die than live like that. The night she refused to leave her apartment, her bunker was bombed. She died in 1950 at 84.
Seeing and hearing so much human suffering of people who were so ordinary around the world can't be expressed in words. I was born in the U.S. and heard so much from people of all nationalities. Human cruelty will never end.
Wow, another great video
"Do it again Bomber Harris."
I suggest the battles of:
Marathon
Thermopylae
Cannae
Watching this while a diffrent war is raging just outside my countries border makes me feel very uneasy.
Still I enjoy your content
You should do some on WW1 battles like the Somme
Gallipoli
Battle of fort veaux
Yes battle of the Somme!!
How about Belleauwood? First WWI battle that the Americans won
@@andyyang3029The Somme has been flogged to death on utube.
Hosea 8:7 "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up". This is what nationalism and war mongering lead to. Every single time.
My opa lived through the Munich bombings and has many crazy stories how they had to live under ground and he didn't know why this was happening because he was 6 but these memories were scarred into his head
Now *that's* shock and awe.
Just a sidenote: I love the thumbnail style for this video (same one you have on Barbarossa and Winter War) looks fresh!!
How true are the words, war is hell.
Damn.. I guess it's not war crimes, if you win the war.. Chilling thought.
Excellent work, Simon & team.
To be fair, the idea only came about due to what Germany had done to the UK. We took what the Germans did to us and perfected it.
Ask a typical Londoner at the time how they felt about being bombed every night while the enemy sat in comparative luxury.
@@StevenSmith-mk5fg That doesn't make it not a war crime.
@@StevenSmith-mk5fgyou declared war on Germany, not the other way around.
Air attack sirens in background, great touch
I've heard them several times for real. Eerie.
I only knew Dresden was the more famous German city to be firebombed? Thanks Simon Whistler for featuring this!
Dresden was a war crime. Just as Tokyo was.
@@Dank-gb6jn Dresden - maybe. It was controversial even during that time. There was little of military value there.
On Tokyo - I disagree. There were major industrial areas in the bombing area. Those are fair game. If the enemy is killing your people, you can go after their weapon-making ability. The "civilians" are arms-factory workers. The children are unfortunately and criminally located in the factory areas..
@@MrTexasDan I’m glad we can have a respectful conversation. I’ll have to pushback just a little on Tokyo. Now, I think we can agree that arms production and military targets should be taken out in war time. That’s a given if you want to win. Taking those factories out at the expense of *heavy* civilian casualties (be they arms factory workers who weren’t on shift at the time, children living next to the factories, hospitals (in the case of Hiroshima), banks, etc.) should be looked at as either strict war crimes, or unacceptable civilian losses.
Had we completely leveled the Imperial Palace, in a tactical strike, with minimal civilian casualties, I’d agree with you 100%. However, we wiped out significant portions of a city (no doubt many places of significant military importance), but we also incinerated thousands upon thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands of years of historical and cultural value.
So while I agree with you to an extent about Tokyo, I hope you can understand why I’m pushing back some.
Dresden was chosen largely as there wasn't much else already moonscaped by bombs by 1945.
@@Dank-gb6jn I understand your feeling on the subject, but Tokyo and Yokohama were the manufacturing hub of the Japanese universe. Those munitions were sending thousands of US and Brit boys home in boxes. I still feel the bombing was totally justified.
You also mention Hiroshima (and I assume Nagasaki) as being war crimes. I also completely disagree. The objective was to compel the Japanese to give up, and negate the need for a ground invasion of Japan. Any way you look at it, the invasion (Operation Downfall) would have resulted in massive casualties ... 500k to 1M US killed, and 5M-10M Japanese killed, plus the total annihilation of Japanese infrastructure and culture.
There are 10s of millions of Americans and Japanese alive today because of this.
Well now I know where to start for more research...and I really want to discuss this with my professor who was born there well after the war ended.
Aluminum strips were known as “chaff” in the modern age, I was a Asst. Crew Chief on the F-4 Phantom, it carried chaff pods to mess up the radar, people used to put aluminum foil in their hubcaps, to confuse the Radar from Highway Patrol, than VASCAR came along, radar became somewhat obsolete. Who knows.
Is Simon attempting to make a video chapter for every channel he has?
This is a fascinating story but Operation Millennium that predated this and the 1st 1000 bomber raid on Cologne should not be forgotten.
My Grandfather was in one of those B17 , the vanguard that dropped all the xmas tinsel to mislead the radar of the germans, only to prevent the higher command from dropping the A-Bomb on Hamburg- it could have been a lot worse for Hamburg, than we know. Btw, the same B17's also dropped food supplies a year later and I lived in Hamburg for most of my life.
I would love to see a video like this on Dresden, lest we forget.
You say lest we forget for the allies, don't be so disrespectful.
Dresden was a war crime, a cultural center where at least 25,000 people were snuffed out. Shame it’s not covered more.
@@falconmclenny7284 Dresden was considered Germany’s “Florence” in reference to the cultural pinnacle of Italy. Further, a 1953 report detailed that at least 50% of the civilian residences were completely obliterated in the city. Whether it was a “critical transportation junction” as Churchill claimed or not; 25,000+ people were wiped out, mostly civilians and refugees at that.
Furthermore, it was even stated in the video that these terror tactics didn’t even work like the Allies had hoped! So the civilian deaths weren’t even WORTH it! Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo; all three are stark Allied war crimes.
@MusicMaster1987 ... how do you say hi in Hebrew?
My catholic parents would be very upset to hear their atheist son is now a rabbi. .mum will be heart broken, hail Mary's for days.
@@falconmclenny7284 There’s not a response clear enough, concise enough, or respectful enough that I can give to you; that could explain why your statement is distasteful. You have your opinion, I have mine. Good day sir/Ma’am.
I wish I could get Simon to narrate my life! It would make it sound much cooler than it actually is 😅
The things we do to each other , Hamburg now has an enemy in the opposite direction
You should do the Australian battle of long tan or kokoda
Boggs they are minor skirmishes compared to Hamburg bombing.
How the TH-cam algorithm works: Video Title: "Gomorrah", Advert: Bible TV
How the Netflix works:
You have just watched Bugs life - so maybe you want to watch now Human Centipede?
I didn't even notice this video being published do to the different graphics in the thumbnail
“During the blitz, analysis had shown that civilians who lost their homes often failed to report for work the next day”
Really?
No shit...
Make a video about Octavian and his fight against cleopatras
You make unimaginable death and destruction bearable.
When Adolf declared 'total war' , he got it.
Now, I don't want to gloss over the crimes of the Nazis during the war, but they did not declare war on Britain. It was the other way around, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The British like to forget that.
@@callsigndd9ls897
Well that makes no difference, since Nazi Germany committed acts of war even if they didn't declare it.
The declaration of war was made in defence.
How does this guy end up hosting almost every video I watch. He's like the Steve Harvey of youtube.
I can only imagine what A sky full of a thousand planes would look like
I really love your videos and want to listen to this, but there's a high pitch background noise making it unlistenable right now. It isn't happening on any other videos so I don't think it's my headphones. Maybe it's just me?
Good!
The firebombing of Tokyo I think was worst than this one.
As a wise man once said. "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
Burying the dead was worse than having your organs boil as your flesh roasts? I'm sure that the poor camp workers were likely to have a terrible fate ahead but sadly, removing the bodies of Hamburg was probably far from the worst they'd suffer.
This was a brilliant video. People need to remember the cost of war on humanity.
Rumor has it if you are early enough, Simon has a full set of hair on video
Got here first, can confirm
I managed to get here just has his scalp was reobsorbing it
I’d love to see one on The Spanish Civil War.
Rule #1.Don't start barbaric wars of aggression. Rule#2. If you start a barbaric war of aggression, don't lose. Rule#3. If you lose, don't expect mercy.
My God, how do you manage to maintain your composure doing something like this? This story is much more than reading a script and looking the camera directly in the eye. If I would have had you for a history teacher in high school I wouldn't have slept nights. BUT, keep up the good work.
This is his job and he follows a schedule like it is his job 6 to 8 hours a day if y'all think this is amazing thank his script writers and editor
Why this is a heartwarming story of a bunch of evil Nazis getting what they deserve?
They sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.
Total war. Don't start wars and these things wouldn't happen🤷🤷🏼♂️🤷🏾♀️
The young children didn't start the war though... :( And I don't think it was really necessary tbh.
@@henrimourant9855 Realistically EVERYONE who lives in a nation at war will suffer. Therefore DON'T START WARS. Even here in "unbeatable" Murca. We may not be in immediate danger but our loved ones are. In my service days, someone reported me KIA and found out how my family felt. Midnight phone calls and tears. Peace.
Oh sure. It was absolutely right to burn those German women, children, and elderly to death by the tens of thousands to punish them for all the evil they'd done. I mean look at this terrible war they'd started, right?
Deliberate targeting of noncombatants is an evil and a disgrace in ANY war. And is now universally considered a war crime AND crime against humanity. There's a very good reason why so-called strategic bombing is no longer considered legitimate warfare. It's because murdering children to achieve a military goal is rightfully recognized for the vicious and depraved evil that it is. And the USA has adopted as permanent policy the commitment to never do it again. Putin is rightfully considered a criminal for ordering his soldiers to murder noncombatants in Ukraine. It's an evil no matter who does it or why.
You say that because you weren’t there
War crimes happen because of amoral rationalizations like that.
Would be very interested in a video on the firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities
Johnny why not find a book and READ about.
I get sick just thinking about it. Burning alive is my #1 fear. It saddens me when those in charge abandon their ethics just because their enemy has.
Also, since I’ve heard you talk about the Biblical Gomorrah more than once. Abraham negotiated with God to save the cities. First he got Him to agree not to destroy them if He found 50 righteous people there. Then he worked God down to 40, then 30, 20 and 10. That left Lot and his household who were told to get out of Dodge and don’t look back. So technically there were no innocents… but I always wonder about the children.
Too bad every city and town in Germany were not destroyed in firestorms. When you see what the Germans did to the people in the countries they invaded, they deserve to be despised for eternity
It's an allegory
@@SafetySpooon I know. The Bible is chock full of them. It doesn’t change the story or invalidate the Bible. And my comment about children was more of a question about their view about children… guilt by association or just possessions.
Soda and Gommera? Love that pronunciation.
Beat me too it
I am not shure if i can press like on this... your tone ov voice and biblical annecdotes are way to upbeat and energetic for speaking about an event that unleashed hell on earth. i dont know man...
Isn't that the guy from Xplrd?
1:56 did anyone else hear a really high pitched noise here?
My grandfather was in dresden when it was bombed. He said after the raid, they emerged from the bomb shelter and witnessed total destruction. The whole city was gone.
My great uncle (British army) was a prisoner of war. He was a forced labourer at a lead mine just outside of Dresden. I can't recall its name sorry. After the bombing he, and his fellow prisoners, were sent into the city to clear the bodies and search for survivors. Whenever he spoke about it, which wasn't often, he would say his feelings were mixed. On the one hand he suffered some rough treatment and thought it was payback. On the other he thought it was unjustifiable.
Do a korean war. There are few docu aboit korean war
The ship at the far left at 5:35 appears to be the WILHELM GUSTLOFF, which was later sunk with the loss of an estimated 9,000 lives (still considered the worst maritime loss of life in history).
Yes, either "Wilhelm Gustloff" or "Robert Ley". There were 2 identical sister ships. Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk in the Baltic Sea, more than 9,000 people died. Robert Ley burned in a bomb raid in Hamburg 2 months before the end of the war.
Do Dresden
Does he have a video on the ww2 tokyo fire bombing on any of his channels?
Not yet
I live(d) in two cities destroyed by allied bombers. Hamburg, where I currently live and Dresden, where I was born. The bomb raids are in our collective memory. I did not live through them but my grandparents did and they fundamentaly shaped our countries understanding of war.
On the one hand, if it wasnt Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, but any other country, I would be totally repelled by these bombings. They are war crimes of an exceptional scale and they hit those most wounerable the most. On top of that they destroyed our history. I still remember how the last ruins of the Frauenkirche in Dresden were still lying around, before she was rebuild. And if we look further, to Nagasaki and Hiroshima (both imo warcrimes), we see how much more gruesome the spirit, that justified these raids, was.
On the other hand, this was Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. When the firebombing raids started, half of Europe was already reduced to rubble and millions of people died in Asia. At this point the deathmachine in eastern Europe was already working and the raping of Nanjing had happened. The gloves were off.
On a side note: my childhood in Dresden was marked by the yearly marches of neonazis at the memorial of the bombing. Fuck these despicable scum. If there is one lesson to be learned from these bombings: being a Nazi and supporting people with nationalistic, racist, imperialistic and authoritarian ideas, does not only hurt their victims, but it also hurts you. The "nation" you like soooo much, will have scars for decades if not centuries to come, as you can see walking around Hamburg today, with most of its historic buildings gone.
My father and three of my uncles had to leave their safe lives in Canada and risk all to put you bastards back in the box. Two of my uncles suffered what is classed today as P.T.S.D. but all returned changed men. My mother's young cousin died at Hong Kong. "as you sow, so shall you reap"
The Germans had been into ariel bombardment of city's since the first world war via air ships. Guernica, Warsaw and such would also like to point out that the Nazis had definitely boombed city's earlier in the war. Heck my grandmothers family house in Malta was flattened by an axis power, either German or Italian. The Germans are just salty about receiving what they'd dished out.
@@thomasbaker6563 2 wrongs dont make a right lol
Also german and japanese cities were bombed alot more (as was touched upon in the video)
Well written. I moved to Munich a couple of months ago and I can only imagine what my grandparents had to go through as kids growing up here, to constant bombing raids and Fliegeralarm. Certainly war crimes, but also kind of understandable.
@@string-bag Oi, shush! „We“ are not bastards. The Nazis were, their supporters were, but not us, the German people.
The operation really lived up to it's name
Wow . I heard of Dresden fire bombing, but not Hamburg
I’m fairly confident the fire bombing of Japan killed more was a lot more deadly then Hamburg, considering the cities were basically made of wood. I believe there were more casualties in those bombings then even the two nukes. Could be wrong on that, it’s been awhile since I’ve read up on that.
20:36
the reason they didnt drop the abomb on tokyo was there was nothing to bomb it had been burnt to the ground. General Curtis Lemay had stripped his bombers of guns to pack on more explosive and incinderaries. TOTAL WAR.
Your right. The low level fire bombing of Tokyo killed an estimated 100 000 and destroyed 26 square miles in a single raid. Still the deadliest in history
When you only account for those that died on the day of the bombing, Tokyo was the deadliest. However, 80,000 people died in an instant at Hiroshima. Then 20,000 to 30,000 would die over the next 2 to 4 months. The highest estimates for Hiroshima place the eventual death toll at 149,000. I think a more reasonable number is between 105,000 and 115,000. The bomb also caused a firestorm that peaked about 3 hours after the detonation.
Sometimes it is tempting to think that the more you know human beings and what they are capable of doing against eachother , the more you love the animals!!
damnit simon... i guess that im now a whistler head? or whatever u call your followers. i think im subbed to all of your channels now. your writers are great, and your always find a way to make topics interesting to listen to. way to suck me in... jerks ;p
When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
I jus follow Simon on the internet 🖖😁
I suggest operation meetinghouse(fire bombing of tokyo)
I did my Senior Thesis on this in college. It doesn't get looked at near as much as the Dresden Firebombings. The RAF figured out how to create firestorms. Theres an excellent book on it. I forget who wrote it now.
Not quite, the firestorm was an uncommon coincidence between the incendiaries and the weather, and only happened two or three times. The Allies would have liked to create firestorms on command, but such was not the case. Other cities had far more incendiaries dropped on them than Hamburg had.
@@ronjon7942 It also depended on how closely built the houses were. Dresden and Hamburg had houses built tightly together, but Berlin and Cologne had broader streets
@@ronjon7942 First of all it happened a lot more times than two or three, for instance there were Major Firestorms in Hamburg, Dresden, Würzburg, Pforzheim, Kassel, Bremen, Lübeck, Nürnberg and Darmstadt as well as smaller scale Firestorms in Düren, Kaiserslautern, Königsberg, Stettin, Breslau and Augsburg.
Second: The Allies deliberately created Firestorm by first dropping a wave of explosive Bombs which blew up Windows, Doors and Roofs of Houses and then dropped a second wave of Incendiary Bombs and in some cases White Phosphorus and Napalm which created many small fires, those Fires then coalesced and grouped into a massive Storm which was highly destructive and could have winds so strong it would suck people back into the Burning Houses they were trying to escape from.
Lastly Firestorms were anything but uncommon in German Cities in WW2, many German Cities had significant portions of Timber or Half Timber Houses which were perfect fuel for the Fires.
No doubt those people tasted the hell on earth.
Karma is a bitch
How about dresden?