Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_196_PI It seems now that all hope for a submarine war winning strategy is lost, but was there ever hope to begin with? Could Germany have enacted a full naval blockade on Britain if it had focused more of its resources on Uboats?
one gets the impression that like many other demagogues, our friend the failed artist doesnt really do the whole "rational thinking" thing so much as the "emotional thinking" thing, good for riling up the masses but not so good for effective policy creation and enactment.
What was the impact of Spain and Portugal´s neutrality on other theatres, like how Angola and Mozambique were off limits to each side, and how Operation Torch couldn´t cross the Spanish controlled parts of Morocco?
Which is exactly why sponsorship is so difficult for channels (on TV or online) that cover brutal and difficult historical topics. Nobody wants their brand and their warm fuzzy commercials airing next to pictures of battlefield destruction.
@@Raskolnikov70 But the Mussolini Madness... what would they call a stuffed crust? The Stalingrad Special? Delicious pockets of surrounded cheese. It needs to happen.
@@frank_fick I agree, never said that I was one of the people who objected. Brands need to be less sensitive, stop trying to please everyone. Now gimme a "Kursk Kombo" on pan crust, hold the jalapenos.....
You know, You had me with the Pizza hat fake sponsor commercial. It was good acting. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they got some ideas from Indy and rename some of their dishes after WW2 figures and incidents. Excellent video once again. Keep on the good work Time Ghost team. These videos have become like my Saturday afternoon tradition. Greetings from 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷👋
@@steffanyschwartz7801 Well, in my country's case he tried to feed us that madness against our will but we turned the offer down and kept throwing it back in his face until his buddy Hitler came in and forced us to eat it but we kept fighting both in exile and as partisans. Go and check the weekly episodes from October 1940 to May 1941 here in this channel for more information on that.
They have a V2 in storage at the war memorial in canberra. It hasn't held up all that well over the intervening 78 years, but then again it wasn't really expected to last more than 7-8 days between construction and launch
My dad served in the Merchant Marines during the war. He joined in late ‘42-early ‘43 during the height of the war in the Atlantic. Fortunately, his first ship was in May 43 and he had relatively few problems. In fact he said they looked forward to attacks while they supported the the Italian campaign because they got a big combat pay bonus. He then went to OCS in New London and finished the war as a LTJG in the Philippines.
My father was in the RCN Reserve. In 1943 he was activated to the RCN sent to Scotland by corvette serving as a convoy escort. Part way across the Atlantic the ASDIC operator heard high speed propeller noise and alerted the captain who shut down the engine. The ship continued forward on momentum and the acoustic torpedo lost its lock and ran straight, several hundred metres behind my dad's ship. I don't know the date of this but it was probably before late May.
Uboats are painfully slow while submerged. They cannot stalk and get into position for attacks on convoys while submerged. Its just not practical. They cruise surfaced and then submerge to attack. Snorkals allow them to hide underwater largely indeffinately, but a uboat hidding for its entire patrol cant attack. And the allies do not need to sink uboats to win the battle of the atlantic. They only need to bring in the shippikg tonnage. A uboat that spends its patrol hidding from air cover is an allied victory.
Late war bombers had ASV Mark III radar by March 43 and allied ASV radar generally outpaced the german detectors in technology. Even snorkels could be detected from a decent distance with ASV, and up to 140km if they were running Metox.
I happen to fulfill military service in a base near Salonika (it s mandatory for Greek citizens to serve in the Greek armed forces). Some buildings in the base were built by the Germans and are still being used to this day(they are in very good condition despite the time passed from ww2). The Germans also constructed miles of underground tunnels and trenches near the coast as they expected an amphibious landing because of operation mincmeat.Very few of them can be seen to this date. It s so interesting to watch you Indy analyzing the decisions made by axis and allies and then see the physical results of those decisions 70 years later. (Sorry for my English)
My paternal grandfather was with the US 7ID at Attu. He mentioned coming across a Japanese camp that had just been evacuated. Fires were still smoldering, food was still out, and a dog had been left tied up. He rarely ever spoke about the time, apart from a couple small bits. He did say the Aleutians were terrible and he hated it there, though.
I have studied WWII since I was a kid (b. 1954). I never fail to learn something from you that I didn't know before. Really good, informative, and very entertaining content.
Even worse, how bad does your army have to be that your enemy doesn't think it's worth their time to kill them or take them prisoner? I think the partisans are doing it intentionally, sending them back because they'll be refitted and rearmed and will bring them more useful stuff the next time they attack.
There needs to be a special episode of Spies and ties on an operation to smuggle out a V-2 that has veered offcourse into occupied Poland and was captured by Home Army. While the missile was damaged by fall, enough of internal machinery survived to give allies idea of how it operated.
With you talking about gas usage and seeing Phosgene and Mustard I'm just reminded of my military career when I would have to take CBRN classes and see the old WW2 posters of smelling moldy hay and garlic
I always thought that the V2 was the prettiest ballistic missile. That might be because of its use in early sci fi as space ship props, but I really like how it looks.
If I may just point out a small error in the infographic at 4:00, the number of symbols indicating soviet ground attack planes seems to be representing 338 (34 pictures), the total number of planes the soviets had, as opposed to the ~180 that they actually had (as pointed out above the visual representation). Apart from that, a pleasure to watch another episode from you guys, as always.
@Amil Topuz Good counting! No matter how many pairs of eyes we have on these things during production mistakes slip through. Thanks for pointing it out, we'll work on correcting it
It will be a dark day if this channel ever begins covering conflicts where neckties were not in fashion. ....on second thought toga reviews could be amusing.
About Erhard Milch: I read a truly fascinating biography of Milch called "The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe". Milch was essentially in command of the Luftwaffe for the entire war because Göring was too busy pilfering art and getting high to bother with, you know, his job. Anyway, the book details the miracles Milch had to pull off to keep the Luftwaffe functioning, even as Allied air pressure mounted, especially in late '44 and early '45. Milch, a Field Marshal, was captured in early May of '45 and tried at Nuremberg, where he was exonerated of any wrongdoing.
Chester wilmots great book the struggle for Europe covers Dontitz decision to recall his uboat fleet in detail. I got the book for 25 cents from a used book store. Turns out that it's the best regarded book on the war in Europe.
The T5 "Zaunkönig" torpedo did more than just a pre programmed zig zag of the previous T3 FAT, it was an acoustic homing torpedo. The T5 torpedo had two hydrophone receivers which it used to steer into the loudest sound source it could find. The hydrophones were placed on either side of the torpedoes nose and so the torpedo was able to listen to both sides, it would then turn to the side that had the louder noice, this meant that the torpedo did not run in a straight line but in a zig zag pattern.
This shows how bad the Germans were with code names. 'Zaunkonig' told you sound was involved, 'Alaric' was an indication it was about taking over Italy. Very bad security as code names shouldn't reveal what the subject is. German code names always gave a clue - eg 'Barbarossa'. Only codes such as 'Fall blau' were reasonably secure, but they still revealed an attack was planned.
A buddy in the service once told me a messed up story. His grandfather was in the Afrika Corp and was on a two man reconnaissance mission. From a distance they witnessed a group of over 2 dozen Italian infantrymen surrender to 4 commonwealth soldiers in a jeep. They watched from binocular distance as the Italians were ordered to give up there boots and hand them over. Then they just left them there, sans footwear. So sad...
@CK Lim Yup, pretty pragmatic. The only real choice those Italian troops had was to wait until follow up troops came along to take them to POW camps. As the troops who had found them had certainly given those following troops the location then the Italians would not have had to wait too long. Most people making jokes about it have never actually BEEN to a desert. Walking through desert terrain without boots is a nightmare. You would have to be either stupid or desperate to contemplate it.
Thanks! I was just about to ask what that was. From the vertical stabilizer it looked almost like one of the very early prop-powered, taildragger Me-262 prototypes but I was pretty sure they had only one engine, mounted in the nose.
Whether it's Pizza Hut, or a little bar in Rome that has passed from father to son since the days of Augustus, at the end of the day it's still just overpriced cheese and tomato on toast.
@@philipwagner9169 in Italy a Margherita pizza is 6$, but having lived abroad I understand how you all are scammed. Yet, if you eat a good pizza (you can find also abroad, but ask an italian first) you will changr your mind😉
@@manuelapollo7988 :) I'll reserve judgement until then, but meanwhile, I'm not a huge fan of traditional English boiled beef and grey cabbage either, so don't take it personally!
@@angelG14I am from Milan. one of the best pizza I had were in Paris and Liverpool, but the pizza guys were from Naples. Generally if it's a neapolitan guy who makes it, it's fantastic. In Chicago I had a fantastic deep dish pizza, but for us in Italy that is not absolutely a pizza, it's something closer to a pie.
Imagine my disappointment upon finding out that this video WASN'T actually sponsored by Pizza Hut. I was all set to order a Supreme Commander Eisenhower too... :-(
Breaking into and decrypting the Lorenz system's messages was the main top secret+ Allied project involving the team based around Alan Turing. The sensitivity of the scrambled German information it "safely and quickly" delivered back and forth to the highest levels of Reich officialdom was impossible to imagine.
A sidenote this week on May 27 1943 is that the B-24 bomber _Green Hornet_ crashes at sea after developing mechanical trouble while on a search and rescue mission for a lost aircraft and crew. There were three survivors from the crash, which were Olympic distance runner *Louis Zamperini* , pilot Russell Allen Phillips and Francis McNamara. McNamara would die after being adrift at sea for 33 days, while Zamperini and Phillips were taken prisoner by the Japanese after 47 days when they reached the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. Their ordeals at sea were depicted in the 2014 film *Unbroken* .
Watching WW2 by weekly really put in perspective that the reasons Japan last quite long in the war is because the allies are to busy fighting the German thus ignoring them for like almost a year.
Not quite. The USN knew full well that the fleet couldn't do its stuff until the sailors had been fledged. Between the time of construction -- and then training -- the USN wasn't going to be dominating factor until 1944. Midway was a military miracle that accelerated things quite considerably.
@@davidhimmelsbach557 yeah you right, US Navy fleet still like few carrier for how many month now, it's very staggering that we are at mid 1943 and USN haven't recovered their losses yet but by 1944 they have a whole armada.
It confused me. I have never seen any TH-cam channels with a Pizza Hut sponsorship, including TH-camrs like Mikey Chen who seem like obvious candidates. So I was wondering where that was going from the start.
The thing is, I could see a Pizza place doing a line of WWII pizzas. Maybe they could do a pizza for every major American conflict and police action. Vietnam-The Ho Chih Minh Meatball pizza....-Korea-The 38thParrallel pIzza-half veggie half meat.....WW I could be the Doughboy-a giant dessert pizza made from doughnut batter. But not Mussolini.
I hate to pick at nits, but at 6:40, a quote is attributed to 'David Somerville', author of 'World War Two Day by Day'. His name is actually 'Donald Sommerville'
Excellent video. At 9:38 however, the aircraft shown is a de Havilland Comet, a 1934 racer, not an attack aircraft like the dH Mosquito shown before and after these shots.
Hi Y'all, Eddie Bauer was a young man in about 1920, just about froze, created down coats, started a company. The company would make a lot of clothing in WW2. (The company still exists, after changing owners half a dozen times.) Thanks, take care.
Dogs & cats stacked on top of each other, excrement all over. Bears in upright sitting cages. Baby deer in solitary cages. Very little refrigeration. Essentially an open-air slaughterhouse. Disgusting market. I refuse to say anymore for fear of being in trouble with moderators, but the Wuhan Market was a massive filthy & tragic experience.
Wuhan is an important hub even at that time being à railway jonction and located litteraly in the middle of China. There was one of major battle of the war here in 1938. So if an epidemic would start here it would spread all around very quickly
Another great episode. I'll have to play some Darkest Hour(hoi2) this weekend. People's opinions on WW2, Hitler, and the Allies, I still consider extremely relevant as historic revision gets weaponized into a form of strategic warfare.
In addition to radar, codebreaking, and increased air coverage is direction finding. Land-based high frequency direction finding stations, which were intercepting messages for codebreakers, were also taking bearings to triangulate transmission locations. On the tactical level, rapid advances in HF/DF (Huff Duff) technology was allowing it to be installed on some warships. When a signal was detected, the warship could break off from the convoy and "run down the bearing" at flank speed to drive off or attack the U-boat.
"Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic" by Kathleen Broome Williams is an informative book on the subject, if a bit dry.
Too late, you said "Pizza Hut" I will eat nothing but other than Pizza Hut from now on. I hope you guys are ready for my insurance bills after I get my emergency cardiac surgery.
You use, understandably, several standard maps to illustrate what's going on. As does the BBC in the current events. However, like the BBC coverage, I would find things much more easy to understand if, when you mention a particular location or town, you were to add the particular town or region to the map for that shot. Case in point, the excellent map of the Kuban front, where you mention Moldovanskoye, but I don't know where that is, so I lose a little situation awareness. Your coverage is wonderful, and I don't want to be over critical, but this would help!
I really thought for a hot minute that Pizza Hut was sponsoring this episode, and I would not be opposed to it at all, but thanks for reminding us of the importance of putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to supporting history.
I also can't help but wonder if Raeder had followed Doenitz's advice and built at least 300 U Boats at the start of the war and focused on those instead of the surface fleet.
Then the British would have accelerated their own construction of escort vessels. An expanded U-boat fleet could hardly have been a threat to any power other than Britain. Moreover, British (and Canadian) shipbuilding resources were vastly greater than those of Germany.
@@dovetonsturdee7033True. If anything it would have accelerated the Wolfpacks' demise by taking away the distraction of the Bismarck and the surface raiders.
Developing a better torpedo bomber capability in the Luftwaffe would have been a more effective use of any resources put into anti-shipping efforts. They couldn't replace U-boats for obvious reasons (shorter range from shore) but would have been an absolute menace in the waters around Southern England. Enough so that they might have completely driven the Royal Navy out of the channel and made an amphibious invasion of the UK feasable.
@@Raskolnikov70 Not even then. Summer of 1940, which was the time Britain was most vulnerable, the KM had 4 Destroyers and 3 Cruisers able to sail. That was the entire force they had available to cover a Naval Invasion at the time. To make it worse their Landing Craft were converted Rhine Barges, only 1 in 3 of which had engines and could manage 3.5 Knots. Which means around much of the UK coast these barges could NOT make headway against an outgoing tide. Hell in some places they would be moving backwards at 0.5 knots even at full power. Then you have the rest of the specialist equipment an Amphibious assault of that scale requires, not to mention the transports required to supply the troops in the event they somehow managed to get to shore. Royal Navy did not need to risk Capital ships against that force, 20 - 30 destroyers (they had over 100 in British waters) and as many MTB's and MGB's as they could get their hands on would have left the Invasion force little more than burning ruins and sinking wrecks. And they could have waited for night, because of the tidal conditions even in late summer at least part of the operation would have been at night which means those small attack boats could have gotten among those slow, clumsy barges and caused havoc..... Plus they found how vulnerable torpedo bombers were later in the war even in contested airspace. Early war torpedoes required a low and slow attack run, which left the aircraft horrifically vulnerable. There is a reason most nations navies had moved almost entirely from Torpedo Bombers to Dive Bombers for anti shipping.... At least till late war when torpedoes allowing a higher and much faster drop were introduced.
I worked at a Pizza Hut in the early 1980s. I still suffer PTSD from the ordeal. I, along with other PHV(Pizza Hut Veterans), generally don’t like to talk about our experience. Just the sight of black polyester pants or a whiff of a Supreme Pizza (with extra cheese) causes me to break out in a cold sweat.
One of the things I like best about these videos is that the materials that accompany the "news" is accurate. Videos, stills... your offerings are well-researched! Also... Pizza Hut? Really? >.>
What did people think an atomic bomb would be used for at this point? A city destroyer like Nagasaki´s Fat Man? A more tactical nuke like the Davy Crocket good for getting rid of a regiment? Something else?
They (scientists, military & gov't) will find out when they test the first one they produce to see the actual results. The physicists had an idea of the destructive capability, but everything was theoretical at that stage. The general idea was to use it on a city, or strategic target.
Sciece fiction authors had been discussing the possible uses of atomic bombs for many years before the war even started. In general, they underestimated the power of atomic bombs, and therefore tended to describe what we would call tactical nukes. In March 1944, a story named "Deadline" appeared in Astounding magazine, which described a nuclear bomb in considerable detail, based entirely upon unclassified sources. It caught the attention of the FBI. John W. Campbell, the editor, managed to convince the FBI that the level of information contained in that story was already common knowledge, at least among the scientifically educated. Amusingly, Campbell had already guessed that the government was putting together a nuclear program, because many of his subscribers, that he knew to be involved in nuclear physics, had suddenly changed their delivery address to Los Alamos.
If you want a sponsorship from a pizzaria, please try to find one that doesn't treat its delivery drivers quite so terribly. I'm literally happier being unemployed than working for them.
I worked as a driver for them for years back in the 90's while going to college. It wasn't such a bad gig back then, paid well and you always had cash in your pocket. I imagine it's different now with higher costs for everything, since even back then you were driving your car into the ground every day and maintenance costs were huge.
Small correction here: the T5 torpedo, called the Zaunkönig, was actually an acoustic torpedo that would enter service and see some success in September 1943. What Indy means is the FAT (Federapparattorpedo, or Flächenabsuchtorpedo), who can cover an area by running in a circular zigzag pattern. It was already in use by this point, May 1943. Also in experimental use by this point was a prototype for the T5, the T4, called the Falke, which ran at only 20 knots. 3 torpedoes were fired, of which 2 hit and sank 2 merchant ships. Due to its slow speed, it could not be used against warships, unlike the T5.
@Michael Kovacic Well that was a fascinating path of research you just sent me down, thanks for the input! I see that FAT was a system that allowed a torpedo to 'zig-zag' (amongst other maneuvres) that was fitted to a couple of types of torpedo from late '42 but, as you said, never to the new T5. Indy may have gotten the technologies mixed up, but at the same time he is talking about the Kriegsmarine's hopes for the future and it's quite possible they were planning at this time in May '43 to equip the T5 with FAT or something similar when it entered full service. I'm sure they would have loved to have FAT on the T5s if they could. So we'll let the episode stay as it is for now as Indy is talking about an, at this point, experimental piece of equipment
@@WorldWarTwo I am very happy to help! But I believe there is a bit of a misunderstanding on German WW2 torpedo types. The FAT was meant to be used against merchant ships, and if the shot missed, it would enter into its pre-programmed zigzag search pattern, where it could possibly strike another ship in a convoy. The T5, on the other hand, was a torpedo specifically produced to target warships (which had been very difficult until this point) by automatically homing in the enemy's acoustic signature, that is, the noise emitted by its engines and screws. Most of the time, you hear about 2 types, the G7a (which ran on pressurized oxygen) and the G7e (which ran on batteries). Here is a short summary of the most important types: - T1 was the G7a torpedo. It could be exposed to the elements, and was carried by uboats as reloads in upper deck containers. It was faster than the G7e, but left a visible wake. It was also widely used on surface ships. - T2 was the original G7e torpedo. Due to its battery, it required maintenance every 3 to 4 days and had to be carried in the torpedo tubes or as internal reloads. - T3 was a modified G7e torpedo. It could be fitted with an improved magnetic detonator, known as the Pi2, that would break a ship's keel by detonating below it. For example, U515, commanded by Oak Leaves holder Werner Henke, sank 7 ships for over 43,000 tons with only 9 of these torpedoes from convoy TS37 on the night of 30.04. to 01.05.1943, one of the most successful convoy attacks of the entire war. -T3a was the FAT, as described above. It was therefore a modification of the T3. There were different evolutions, the FAT1, the FAT2, and finally the LUT (Lageunabhängiger Torpedo), which could be fired from any bearing. The FAT1 was widely used during the successful convoy battles of March 1943. -T4, also called the Falke, was the first acoustic torpedo, but so slow that it could only be used against merchant ships. Only 3 torpedoes were fired, 2 of them by U221, a uboat adopted by my hometown, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, in Austria. U221 sank 2 ships with them, from convoys HX228 and HX229, in March 1943. Her commander received the Knight's Cross for sinking 10 ships for over 60,000 tons from North Atlantic convoys in the winter of 1942/43. The T4 was another G7e modification. -T5, also called the Zaunkönig or the G7es (s for sonar), was finally the first purpose-built anti-destroyer weapon of the Kriegsmarine. The Allies referred to it as GNAT (German Navy Acoustic Torpedo). It was first used in September 1943 in the battle between wolfpack Leuthen and convoy ON202, where it was used to sink a destroyer, a frigate and a corvette (uboat commanders reported sinking of over 10 escorts). It had its drawbacks, namely that it didn't home in on ships running too slow, or homing in on noise buoys towed by escorts. The T5's hit rate was only at about 10 to 15 percent, but as uboats had to dive below periscope depth to avoid drawing the weapon on itself, commanders automatically assumed a hit with every detonation. The Kriegsmarine hoped that entire convoys could be destroyed by eliminating the escorts first (in a reversal of previous doctrine), but the limitations of the T5 prevented this. There was also an improved, much more reliable version of the T5 which entered service in 1945. Apparently U245 used this torpedo to sink 2 merchant ships in the final weeks of the war. And the type XXI, which had autoloaders, could have fired 18 of them within 20 minutes without going to periscope depth, which should give you an impression of the havoc this type could have wrought on convoys had it appeared earlier. I hope this gives you a quick overview. If you have any questions, please ask :)
Join the TimeGhost Army: bit.ly/WW2_196_PI
It seems now that all hope for a submarine war winning strategy is lost, but was there ever hope to begin with? Could Germany have enacted a full naval blockade on Britain if it had focused more of its resources on Uboats?
one gets the impression that like many other demagogues, our friend the failed artist doesnt really do the whole "rational thinking" thing so much as the "emotional thinking" thing, good for riling up the masses but not so good for effective policy creation and enactment.
Debatable. The more pressing a threat, the more effort is put into defeating it.
Pizza Hut missed an opportunity - back then and maybe today.
What was the impact of Spain and Portugal´s neutrality on other theatres, like how Angola and Mozambique were off limits to each side, and how Operation Torch couldn´t cross the Spanish controlled parts of Morocco?
By the way, remember that Gorbachev, the communist, did an advertisement for Pizza Hut? th-cam.com/video/fgm14D1jHUw/w-d-xo.html
Indy before Saying the Sponsorship transition: "Only tens of thousands of dead sailors will tell"
Indy 5 seconds later: PIZZA
Which is exactly why sponsorship is so difficult for channels (on TV or online) that cover brutal and difficult historical topics. Nobody wants their brand and their warm fuzzy commercials airing next to pictures of battlefield destruction.
@@Raskolnikov70 But the Mussolini Madness... what would they call a stuffed crust? The Stalingrad Special? Delicious pockets of surrounded cheese. It needs to happen.
@@frank_fick I agree, never said that I was one of the people who objected. Brands need to be less sensitive, stop trying to please everyone. Now gimme a "Kursk Kombo" on pan crust, hold the jalapenos.....
He has a career in TV news. Same style!
@@TheVideoNorm Wow i didnt know that thx
I like that operation Alaric is named after leader who sacked Rome. It's a good description of German intentions in Italy.
Had me laughing out loud when I saw the name if the operation
Not the best codename for OPSEC though 😅
Which makes me even less understanding of operation Copenhagen...
@@nevilleneville6518 Would "Operation All Roads Lead To Rome" have been any less obvious?
while Constantine was born in Naisus in the Balkans.
You know, You had me with the Pizza hat fake sponsor commercial. It was good acting. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they got some ideas from Indy and rename some of their dishes after WW2 figures and incidents.
Excellent video once again. Keep on the good work Time Ghost team. These videos have become like my Saturday afternoon tradition.
Greetings from 🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷👋
Mussolini Madness to go!
I hope someone actually tries ordering a Mussolini madness
@@steffanyschwartz7801
Well, in my country's case he tried to feed us that madness against our will but we turned the offer down and kept throwing it back in his face until his buddy Hitler came in and forced us to eat it but we kept fighting both in exile and as partisans. Go and check the weekly episodes from October 1940 to May 1941 here in this channel for more information on that.
I was literally ordering pizza hut when the ad came on lol I was searching for those until I realized it was fake
I'll have the Mussolini Madness with extra pepperonis, some Winston Wings, and a Chiang Kai-Shake please.
They have a V2 in storage at the war memorial in canberra. It hasn't held up all that well over the intervening 78 years, but then again it wasn't really expected to last more than 7-8 days between construction and launch
That's remarkable! I didn't know any had survived. The V-2 was an astonishing achievement for it's time.
@@jamesdunn9609 In the "Deutsches Museum" in Munich they have an extreme good conserved V2
I kinda want to know how that V2 ended up on almost exactly the opposite side of the world.
I think they have one in the US Air Force museum in Dayton also.
@@SeanHillaby the same way the Aussie troops showed up in Germany.
My dad served in the Merchant Marines during the war. He joined in late ‘42-early ‘43 during the height of the war in the Atlantic. Fortunately, his first ship was in May 43 and he had relatively few problems. In fact he said they looked forward to attacks while they supported the the Italian campaign because they got a big combat pay bonus. He then went to OCS in New London and finished the war as a LTJG in the Philippines.
Thanks for sharing you father's recollections @Procopius Augustus
My father was in the RCN Reserve. In 1943 he was activated to the RCN sent to Scotland by corvette serving as a convoy escort. Part way across the Atlantic the ASDIC operator heard high speed propeller noise and alerted the captain who shut down the engine. The ship continued forward on momentum and the acoustic torpedo lost its lock and ran straight, several hundred metres behind my dad's ship. I don't know the date of this but it was probably before late May.
Uboats are painfully slow while submerged. They cannot stalk and get into position for attacks on convoys while submerged. Its just not practical. They cruise surfaced and then submerge to attack.
Snorkals allow them to hide underwater largely indeffinately, but a uboat hidding for its entire patrol cant attack. And the allies do not need to sink uboats to win the battle of the atlantic. They only need to bring in the shippikg tonnage. A uboat that spends its patrol hidding from air cover is an allied victory.
Great comment.
Late war bombers had ASV Mark III radar by March 43 and allied ASV radar generally outpaced the german detectors in technology. Even snorkels could be detected from a decent distance with ASV, and up to 140km if they were running Metox.
>>Uboats are painfully slow while submerged
I happen to fulfill military service in a base near Salonika (it s mandatory for Greek citizens to serve in the Greek armed forces).
Some buildings in the base were built by the Germans and are still being used to this day(they are in very good condition despite the time passed from ww2).
The Germans also constructed miles of underground tunnels and trenches near the coast as they expected an amphibious landing because of operation mincmeat.Very few of them can be seen to this date.
It s so interesting to watch you Indy analyzing the decisions made by axis and allies and then see the physical results of those decisions 70 years later.
(Sorry for my English)
Very interesting. And your English is very good, poli kala.
@Θωμας Γκανιας Thanks for telling us about your personal experiences in the fortifications! Your english is great btw 😉
My paternal grandfather was with the US 7ID at Attu. He mentioned coming across a Japanese camp that had just been evacuated. Fires were still smoldering, food was still out, and a dog had been left tied up. He rarely ever spoke about the time, apart from a couple small bits. He did say the Aleutians were terrible and he hated it there, though.
I have studied WWII since I was a kid (b. 1954). I never fail to learn something from you that I didn't know before. Really good, informative, and very entertaining content.
I really like this episode a lot because it goes into more about what's going on behind the scenes of the fighting. Awesome work guys!
"disarmed and without their boots." Damn! You know your army is bad when the enemy partisans won't fight you but just mugs you instead.
Even worse, how bad does your army have to be that your enemy doesn't think it's worth their time to kill them or take them prisoner? I think the partisans are doing it intentionally, sending them back because they'll be refitted and rearmed and will bring them more useful stuff the next time they attack.
Kings and Generals and World War II uploading in the same hour! What a day! We look up you heaps!
Few weeks ago, all three K&G affliated channels upload about the same time as WW2 do.
Thanks @Mr Mitchell History!
After WW,II.. There is the Korean War...then the Vietnam War and so on.👍
Gotta get my Saturday morning history
Crossover one day?
There needs to be a special episode of Spies and ties on an operation to smuggle out a V-2 that has veered offcourse into occupied Poland and was captured by Home Army. While the missile was damaged by fall, enough of internal machinery survived to give allies idea of how it operated.
With you talking about gas usage and seeing Phosgene and Mustard I'm just reminded of my military career when I would have to take CBRN classes and see the old WW2 posters of smelling moldy hay and garlic
Indy needs NO excuse to pull a Churchill impression in these videos 😂❤.. love it
I always thought that the V2 was the prettiest ballistic missile.
That might be because of its use in early sci fi as space ship props, but I really like how it looks.
Thanks!
If I may just point out a small error in the infographic at 4:00, the number of symbols indicating soviet ground attack planes seems to be representing 338 (34 pictures), the total number of planes the soviets had, as opposed to the ~180 that they actually had (as pointed out above the visual representation).
Apart from that, a pleasure to watch another episode from you guys, as always.
@Amil Topuz Good counting! No matter how many pairs of eyes we have on these things during production mistakes slip through. Thanks for pointing it out, we'll work on correcting it
I feel like I'm watching a 1943 newsreel in 1944 at the Hawaiian theater in Hollywood! Nicely done!!
That is a niiiice necktie... Looks subtle from a distance, but the little details really seem to play up close. Really cool 4/5
I was shocked for a moment, when I didn't find your comment.
This is incredibly wholesome and we love you both for always being here in our comments
I still prefer contrasting colors for the shirt and vest.
It will be a dark day if this channel ever begins covering conflicts where neckties were not in fashion.
....on second thought toga reviews could be amusing.
@@kirbyculp3449 I agree, but I try to isolate the ratings for the ties unless the outfit is really banging.
About Erhard Milch: I read a truly fascinating biography of Milch called "The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe". Milch was essentially in command of the Luftwaffe for the entire war because Göring was too busy pilfering art and getting high to bother with, you know, his job.
Anyway, the book details the miracles Milch had to pull off to keep the Luftwaffe functioning, even as Allied air pressure mounted, especially in late '44 and early '45.
Milch, a Field Marshal, was captured in early May of '45 and tried at Nuremberg, where he was exonerated of any wrongdoing.
also, milch was a jew, but important for the war effort.
@@irishalbino9308 He was a half Jew and raised as a Christian. His mother lied about his parentage and claimed he was born out of wedlock.
Milch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
@@ranianfibio8107 Yes but he was commuted.
@@insouciantFox True, but he was not exonerated. Commuted still means he is guilty, just that his sentence was shortened.
You really had me for a second with the Pizza hut ad
Dziękujemy.
You almost had me going there at the end. Well played.
I was looking forward to a slice of hot Mussolini Madness.
Chester wilmots great book the struggle for Europe covers Dontitz decision to recall his uboat fleet in detail. I got the book for 25 cents from a used book store. Turns out that it's the best regarded book on the war in Europe.
17:40 Well, dang. ...slowly puts down phone....
Hi Indy
Another wonderful episode.
Finaly axis are on verge of defeat.
Good for people on front.
Thanks for the video..
nice touch including phantom islands on the map at 1:37
The T5 "Zaunkönig" torpedo did more than just a pre programmed zig zag of the previous T3 FAT, it was an acoustic homing torpedo. The T5 torpedo had two hydrophone receivers which it used to steer into the loudest sound source it could find. The hydrophones were placed on either side of the torpedoes nose and so the torpedo was able to listen to both sides, it would then turn to the side that had the louder noice, this meant that the torpedo did not run in a straight line but in a zig zag pattern.
This shows how bad the Germans were with code names. 'Zaunkonig' told you sound was involved, 'Alaric' was an indication it was about taking over Italy. Very bad security as code names shouldn't reveal what the subject is. German code names always gave a clue - eg 'Barbarossa'. Only codes such as 'Fall blau' were reasonably secure, but they still revealed an attack was planned.
At 9:40 that seems to be a de Havilland DH.88 racing plane. Not sure how it was related to the war.
Always love the phone intro dont stop it ever lol
A buddy in the service once told me a messed up story. His grandfather was in the Afrika Corp and was on a two man reconnaissance mission. From a distance they witnessed a group of over 2 dozen Italian infantrymen surrender to 4 commonwealth soldiers in a jeep. They watched from binocular distance as the Italians were ordered to give up there boots and hand them over. Then they just left them there, sans footwear. So sad...
This episode brought to you by Pizza Hut.
@CK Lim Yup, pretty pragmatic. The only real choice those Italian troops had was to wait until follow up troops came along to take them to POW camps. As the troops who had found them had certainly given those following troops the location then the Italians would not have had to wait too long. Most people making jokes about it have never actually BEEN to a desert. Walking through desert terrain without boots is a nightmare. You would have to be either stupid or desperate to contemplate it.
9:38 Hey, that's a DeHavilland Comet racer built for the London-Melbourne air race of 1934
Thanks! I was just about to ask what that was. From the vertical stabilizer it looked almost like one of the very early prop-powered, taildragger Me-262 prototypes but I was pretty sure they had only one engine, mounted in the nose.
Another great episode 👍
As an italian when you said pizza Hut makes a good pizza I felt sad. But when understood it was all a joke, I felt much better
Whether it's Pizza Hut, or a little bar in Rome that has passed from father to son since the days of Augustus, at the end of the day it's still just overpriced cheese and tomato on toast.
@@philipwagner9169 that hurts mate
@@philipwagner9169 in Italy a Margherita pizza is 6$, but having lived abroad I understand how you all are scammed. Yet, if you eat a good pizza (you can find also abroad, but ask an italian first) you will changr your mind😉
@@manuelapollo7988 :) I'll reserve judgement until then, but meanwhile, I'm not a huge fan of traditional English boiled beef and grey cabbage either, so don't take it personally!
@@angelG14I am from Milan. one of the best pizza I had were in Paris and Liverpool, but the pizza guys were from Naples. Generally if it's a neapolitan guy who makes it, it's fantastic. In Chicago I had a fantastic deep dish pizza, but for us in Italy that is not absolutely a pizza, it's something closer to a pie.
Imagine my disappointment upon finding out that this video WASN'T actually sponsored by Pizza Hut. I was all set to order a Supreme Commander Eisenhower too... :-(
All sorts of poor taste and offensive jokes rush to mind. …
@@iamnolegend483 Eisenhower? I hardly know 'er!
Damn, that Pizza hut thing really had me going. I was eager to go get a Combined Chiefs of Staff with breadsticks
I look forward to purchasing all these episodes compiled on a USB or drive card in the future.
Breaking into and decrypting the Lorenz system's messages was the main top secret+ Allied project involving the team based around Alan Turing. The sensitivity of the scrambled German information it "safely and quickly" delivered back and forth to the highest levels of Reich officialdom was impossible to imagine.
A sidenote this week on May 27 1943 is that the B-24 bomber _Green Hornet_ crashes at sea after developing mechanical trouble while on a search and rescue mission for a lost aircraft and crew. There were three survivors from the crash, which were Olympic distance runner *Louis Zamperini* , pilot Russell Allen Phillips and Francis McNamara. McNamara would die after being adrift at sea for 33 days, while Zamperini and Phillips were taken prisoner by the Japanese after 47 days when they reached the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. Their ordeals at sea were depicted in the 2014 film *Unbroken* .
Watching WW2 by weekly really put in perspective that the reasons Japan last quite long in the war is because the allies are to busy fighting the German thus ignoring them for like almost a year.
Not quite. The USN knew full well that the fleet couldn't do its stuff until the sailors had been fledged.
Between the time of construction -- and then training -- the USN wasn't going to be dominating factor until 1944.
Midway was a military miracle that accelerated things quite considerably.
@@davidhimmelsbach557 yeah you right, US Navy fleet still like few carrier for how many month now, it's very staggering that we are at mid 1943 and USN haven't recovered their losses yet but by 1944 they have a whole armada.
Bletchley Park did their bit with cracking U Boat Enigma Ii codes and allied air reconnaissance improved across the Atlantic
You guys just really improve my saturdays it's always great to see the message of new ww2 episode. Keep it up guys great work
Thank you so much!
The Pizza Hut thing scared the crap out of me.
It confused me. I have never seen any TH-cam channels with a Pizza Hut sponsorship, including TH-camrs like Mikey Chen who seem like obvious candidates. So I was wondering where that was going from the start.
The thing is, I could see a Pizza place doing a line of WWII pizzas. Maybe they could do a pizza for every major American conflict and police action. Vietnam-The Ho Chih Minh Meatball pizza....-Korea-The 38thParrallel pIzza-half veggie half meat.....WW I could be the Doughboy-a giant dessert pizza made from doughnut batter. But not Mussolini.
Thanks to the Timeghost high command and Army!
Thank you Juan!
I hate to pick at nits, but at 6:40, a quote is attributed to 'David Somerville', author of 'World War Two Day by Day'. His name is actually 'Donald Sommerville'
Outstanding coverage Indy. Love the intro too.
They were really crossed with me in Pizza Hut when i kept insisting on the Combined chiefs of Staff special
Excellent video. At 9:38 however, the aircraft shown is a de Havilland Comet, a 1934 racer, not an attack aircraft like the dH Mosquito shown before and after these shots.
Arne Beurling singlehandidly broke the Siemens T52AB in two weeks already in june 1940.
If I accidentally ask for Mussolini Madness when I'm ordering pizza, you're to blame
It's got a crust full of hot air and is topped with a lot of baloney.
Video should have been sponsored by Sunkin' Doenitz!
The ONLY video on TH-cam with a #@! commercial I've EVER given a thumbs UP to. Well played, Winston.
Hi Y'all,
Eddie Bauer was a young man in about 1920, just about froze, created down coats, started a company. The company would make a lot of clothing in WW2.
(The company still exists, after changing owners half a dozen times.)
Thanks, take care.
Weird that as you started talking about Pizza, I lit my hob to make tomato sauce for tonight's pizza with my kids. Amazing.
That wuhan seems like very quiet chinese little town. And also have great marketplace.
A nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.....
Dogs & cats stacked on top of each other, excrement all over.
Bears in upright sitting cages.
Baby deer in solitary cages.
Very little refrigeration. Essentially an open-air slaughterhouse.
Disgusting market. I refuse to say anymore for fear of being in trouble with moderators, but the Wuhan Market was a massive filthy & tragic experience.
I hear the filet of bat is quite tasty.
Wuhan is an important hub even at that time being à railway jonction and located litteraly in the middle of China. There was one of major battle of the war here in 1938.
So if an epidemic would start here it would spread all around very quickly
Another great episode. I'll have to play some Darkest Hour(hoi2) this weekend. People's opinions on WW2, Hitler, and the Allies, I still consider extremely relevant as historic revision gets weaponized into a form of strategic warfare.
Excellent episode!
Thanks!
always great information, your delivery is fantastic.......best wishes.....you are the best......
Thanks!
In addition to radar, codebreaking, and increased air coverage is direction finding. Land-based high frequency direction finding stations, which were intercepting messages for codebreakers, were also taking bearings to triangulate transmission locations. On the tactical level, rapid advances in HF/DF (Huff Duff) technology was allowing it to be installed on some warships. When a signal was detected, the warship could break off from the convoy and "run down the bearing" at flank speed to drive off or attack the U-boat.
jliller Thanks, great info
"Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic" by Kathleen Broome Williams is an informative book on the subject, if a bit dry.
Indy's spoof with Pizza Hut gave me a good chuckle. Great video.
Too late, you said "Pizza Hut" I will eat nothing but other than Pizza Hut from now on. I hope you guys are ready for my insurance bills after I get my emergency cardiac surgery.
I would love to see the Mussolini Madness on the pizza menu, you had me hoping haha
You use, understandably, several standard maps to illustrate what's going on. As does the BBC in the current events. However, like the BBC coverage, I would find things much more easy to understand if, when you mention a particular location or town, you were to add the particular town or region to the map for that shot. Case in point, the excellent map of the Kuban front, where you mention Moldovanskoye, but I don't know where that is, so I lose a little situation awareness. Your coverage is wonderful, and I don't want to be over critical, but this would help!
I really thought for a hot minute that Pizza Hut was sponsoring this episode, and I would not be opposed to it at all, but thanks for reminding us of the importance of putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to supporting history.
Lots of good channels have commercial sponsors and begin their show with an advert. Go for it.
Almost had me with the Pizza Hut advertisment. Well done.
I also can't help but wonder if Raeder had followed Doenitz's advice and built at least 300 U Boats at the start of the war and focused on those instead of the surface fleet.
Then the British would have accelerated their own construction of escort vessels. An expanded U-boat fleet could hardly have been a threat to any power other than Britain. Moreover, British (and Canadian) shipbuilding resources were vastly greater than those of Germany.
@@dovetonsturdee7033True. If anything it would have accelerated the Wolfpacks' demise by taking away the distraction of the Bismarck and the surface raiders.
Developing a better torpedo bomber capability in the Luftwaffe would have been a more effective use of any resources put into anti-shipping efforts. They couldn't replace U-boats for obvious reasons (shorter range from shore) but would have been an absolute menace in the waters around Southern England. Enough so that they might have completely driven the Royal Navy out of the channel and made an amphibious invasion of the UK feasable.
@@Raskolnikov70 Not even then. Summer of 1940, which was the time Britain was most vulnerable, the KM had 4 Destroyers and 3 Cruisers able to sail. That was the entire force they had available to cover a Naval Invasion at the time.
To make it worse their Landing Craft were converted Rhine Barges, only 1 in 3 of which had engines and could manage 3.5 Knots. Which means around much of the UK coast these barges could NOT make headway against an outgoing tide. Hell in some places they would be moving backwards at 0.5 knots even at full power. Then you have the rest of the specialist equipment an Amphibious assault of that scale requires, not to mention the transports required to supply the troops in the event they somehow managed to get to shore.
Royal Navy did not need to risk Capital ships against that force, 20 - 30 destroyers (they had over 100 in British waters) and as many MTB's and MGB's as they could get their hands on would have left the Invasion force little more than burning ruins and sinking wrecks. And they could have waited for night, because of the tidal conditions even in late summer at least part of the operation would have been at night which means those small attack boats could have gotten among those slow, clumsy barges and caused havoc.....
Plus they found how vulnerable torpedo bombers were later in the war even in contested airspace. Early war torpedoes required a low and slow attack run, which left the aircraft horrifically vulnerable. There is a reason most nations navies had moved almost entirely from Torpedo Bombers to Dive Bombers for anti shipping.... At least till late war when torpedoes allowing a higher and much faster drop were introduced.
outstanding as usual. When I land my next contract I’ll re-start my patreon support
Thank you so much for your support, we are really glad you enjoy our content!
I worked at a Pizza Hut in the early 1980s. I still suffer PTSD from the ordeal. I, along with other PHV(Pizza Hut Veterans), generally don’t like to talk about our experience.
Just the sight of black polyester pants or a whiff of a Supreme Pizza (with extra cheese) causes me to break out in a cold sweat.
9:37 : 1934 de Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSS Grosvenor House... uhmmmm!
Still nice to see.
Great episode as always, Indy! :D
Have a nice weekend
One of the things I like best about these videos is that the materials that accompany the "news" is accurate. Videos, stills... your offerings are well-researched! Also... Pizza Hut? Really? >.>
Battle of Kuban - 550,000 total troops.
205 seconds spent on it.
Battle of West Hubei in China - 400,000 troops involved.
28 seconds spent on it.
☮
I don't hate the idea of the supreme being renamed the commando supremo
Wait WHAT
You got me on the first half, not gonna lie
Great video
Thanks @Elveheim
Thank you for the lesson.
There is so much beyond names dates and generals.
Nice video!
That Pizza Hut bit was absolutely hilarious; I needed that chuckle!
What did people think an atomic bomb would be used for at this point? A city destroyer like Nagasaki´s Fat Man? A more tactical nuke like the Davy Crocket good for getting rid of a regiment? Something else?
I don't know that people knew about it. It was a pretty secret project.
@@fieldmarshalbaltimore1329 he was meaning the planners i think
I wonder if the technology came first, then the tactical decisions?
They (scientists, military & gov't) will find out when they test the first one they produce to see the actual results.
The physicists had an idea of the destructive capability, but everything was theoretical at that stage. The general idea was to use it on a city, or strategic target.
Sciece fiction authors had been discussing the possible uses of atomic bombs for many years before the war even started. In general, they underestimated the power of atomic bombs, and therefore tended to describe what we would call tactical nukes.
In March 1944, a story named "Deadline" appeared in Astounding magazine, which described a nuclear bomb in considerable detail, based entirely upon unclassified sources. It caught the attention of the FBI. John W. Campbell, the editor, managed to convince the FBI that the level of information contained in that story was already common knowledge, at least among the scientifically educated.
Amusingly, Campbell had already guessed that the government was putting together a nuclear program, because many of his subscribers, that he knew to be involved in nuclear physics, had suddenly changed their delivery address to Los Alamos.
Damn! I had just finished breakfast but you had me hungry for a Supreme Commander pizza! Don't toy with me like that.
Loved the fake-out ad. Well done.
I've tried the Combined Chiefs of Staff Special. 10/10 quality pizza.
It was a long day at work and I poured myself and overly large Old Fashioned. Your Pizza Hut gag had me very, very confused.
I was legit excited you guys were getting sponsored by pizza hut. I thought, "wow, good for them, they never get big corporate sponsors" lol.
Mmm... Pizza. The most remembered part of the episode. Reminds me of the two episodes of Major Bonacelli in Hogan's Heroes.
You have earned my respect with this fake ad.
AAAAAAAND now I want Pizza Hut. Pizza and WWII history from Indy, seriously who doesn’t crave that?
I'm already on my usual pizza app. Time Ghost caught me as a member back at the start of the war.
I think I'm too susceptible to advertising.
Yes and no. Pizza yes, but real one.
So when it come to cracking the Geheimschreiber, hadnt Arne Beurling already done it?
i want one supreme leader special
I Like Ike!
I don't even like Pizza Hut, but if they made a pizza called "Mussolini Madness" and also gave money to TimeGhost for it, I'd probably order one.
I love these episodes:)
Imagine Pizza Hut would really call one of their Pizzas "Mussoini Madness".
Public Reaction would be madness too lmao
It would be even better if an Esso sponsored it.
For a moment there I thought that it was Emperor Palpatine speaking at the beginning of the episode.🤣
If you want a sponsorship from a pizzaria, please try to find one that doesn't treat its delivery drivers quite so terribly. I'm literally happier being unemployed than working for them.
I worked as a driver for them for years back in the 90's while going to college. It wasn't such a bad gig back then, paid well and you always had cash in your pocket. I imagine it's different now with higher costs for everything, since even back then you were driving your car into the ground every day and maintenance costs were huge.
Small correction here: the T5 torpedo, called the Zaunkönig, was actually an acoustic torpedo that would enter service and see some success in September 1943. What Indy means is the FAT (Federapparattorpedo, or Flächenabsuchtorpedo), who can cover an area by running in a circular zigzag pattern. It was already in use by this point, May 1943.
Also in experimental use by this point was a prototype for the T5, the T4, called the Falke, which ran at only 20 knots. 3 torpedoes were fired, of which 2 hit and sank 2 merchant ships. Due to its slow speed, it could not be used against warships, unlike the T5.
@Michael Kovacic Well that was a fascinating path of research you just sent me down, thanks for the input! I see that FAT was a system that allowed a torpedo to 'zig-zag' (amongst other maneuvres) that was fitted to a couple of types of torpedo from late '42 but, as you said, never to the new T5. Indy may have gotten the technologies mixed up, but at the same time he is talking about the Kriegsmarine's hopes for the future and it's quite possible they were planning at this time in May '43 to equip the T5 with FAT or something similar when it entered full service. I'm sure they would have loved to have FAT on the T5s if they could. So we'll let the episode stay as it is for now as Indy is talking about an, at this point, experimental piece of equipment
@@WorldWarTwo I am very happy to help! But I believe there is a bit of a misunderstanding on German WW2 torpedo types. The FAT was meant to be used against merchant ships, and if the shot missed, it would enter into its pre-programmed zigzag search pattern, where it could possibly strike another ship in a convoy. The T5, on the other hand, was a torpedo specifically produced to target warships (which had been very difficult until this point) by automatically homing in the enemy's acoustic signature, that is, the noise emitted by its engines and screws.
Most of the time, you hear about 2 types, the G7a (which ran on pressurized oxygen) and the G7e (which ran on batteries). Here is a short summary of the most important types:
- T1 was the G7a torpedo. It could be exposed to the elements, and was carried by uboats as reloads in upper deck containers. It was faster than the G7e, but left a visible wake. It was also widely used on surface ships.
- T2 was the original G7e torpedo. Due to its battery, it required maintenance every 3 to 4 days and had to be carried in the torpedo tubes or as internal reloads.
- T3 was a modified G7e torpedo. It could be fitted with an improved magnetic detonator, known as the Pi2, that would break a ship's keel by detonating below it. For example, U515, commanded by Oak Leaves holder Werner Henke, sank 7 ships for over 43,000 tons with only 9 of these torpedoes from convoy TS37 on the night of 30.04. to 01.05.1943, one of the most successful convoy attacks of the entire war.
-T3a was the FAT, as described above. It was therefore a modification of the T3. There were different evolutions, the FAT1, the FAT2, and finally the LUT (Lageunabhängiger Torpedo), which could be fired from any bearing. The FAT1 was widely used during the successful convoy battles of March 1943.
-T4, also called the Falke, was the first acoustic torpedo, but so slow that it could only be used against merchant ships. Only 3 torpedoes were fired, 2 of them by U221, a uboat adopted by my hometown, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, in Austria. U221 sank 2 ships with them, from convoys HX228 and HX229, in March 1943. Her commander received the Knight's Cross for sinking 10 ships for over 60,000 tons from North Atlantic convoys in the winter of 1942/43. The T4 was another G7e modification.
-T5, also called the Zaunkönig or the G7es (s for sonar), was finally the first purpose-built anti-destroyer weapon of the Kriegsmarine. The Allies referred to it as GNAT (German Navy Acoustic Torpedo). It was first used in September 1943 in the battle between wolfpack Leuthen and convoy ON202, where it was used to sink a destroyer, a frigate and a corvette (uboat commanders reported sinking of over 10 escorts). It had its drawbacks, namely that it didn't home in on ships running too slow, or homing in on noise buoys towed by escorts. The T5's hit rate was only at about 10 to 15 percent, but as uboats had to dive below periscope depth to avoid drawing the weapon on itself, commanders automatically assumed a hit with every detonation. The Kriegsmarine hoped that entire convoys could be destroyed by eliminating the escorts first (in a reversal of previous doctrine), but the limitations of the T5 prevented this.
There was also an improved, much more reliable version of the T5 which entered service in 1945. Apparently U245 used this torpedo to sink 2 merchant ships in the final weeks of the war. And the type XXI, which had autoloaders, could have fired 18 of them within 20 minutes without going to periscope depth, which should give you an impression of the havoc this type could have wrought on convoys had it appeared earlier.
I hope this gives you a quick overview. If you have any questions, please ask :)
"The Mahattan Project is next at bat."