We are continually amazed by the excellent quality of your productions! Just to see how far you have come, compare this episode to e.g. the one of 8 december 2018... Not that those episodes were bad, they were excellent. But there are marked improvements...
Now that we're getting close- I hope you guys cover the Tientsin and Italian embassy incident where Japan and Italy fought in China after the Italian capitulation/side switching in September.
17:58 A sidenote this week on August 27 1943 is that the first successful sinking on a warship by a guided missile attack occurs when the Royal Navy sloop HMS Egret is sunk after being hit by a German Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided glide bomb. However, this was actually not the first time it was used, as there was another successful attack two days earlier on HMS Bideford but it did not sink. The Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided glide bomb kind of reminds me a bit of the Wasserfall surface-to-air missile that the Germans were developing but never used it in combat due to teething problems with control. Still, at least it did made it in the 2003 video game *Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII* .
17:15 During the war my grandmother was living in Watten, next to the Eperlecques blockhaus. She worked as a town hall clerk and was so jaded about the repeated bombing raids against the blockhaus that after a while she didn't go to the bomb shelter anymore. So many bombs fell on civilian areas that after a while there was no more room at the municipal morgue and the bodies had to be kept in the town hall basement. Some of them were blown to literal pieces, so the remains were shoved in a canvas bag with just the head sticking out for identification. She insists to this day (she'll turn 102 next month) that she could tell British from American bombers by the accuracy of the aiming.
SPOILER It will be heavily attacked in 1944 in an attempt to counter V1 flying bombs. At a tangent, but Watten was the scene of a training centre in the early 17th century for Catholic priests from England. At the time Watten was under Spanish Hapsburg control and was also Flemish-speaking. The priests were taught Flemish so they could preach to the locals. Eventually they would be sent back to England as missionary priests, with the risk of being executed if caught.
Wow. I lived with a local family in Stuttgart in the 90s. The hoteldirektion Frau Schmidt remembered the bombings as a child. One could see the original concrete foundations and all the new buildings built on top. Whole town was flattened.
@@bouncyrou1312 She's very firm that the British were more accurate, but I can't be certain it isn't confirmation bias on her part (i.e. "Not too much collateral damage today, must have been the RAF"). She says British bombers flew single-file unlike the American ones, any way to get confirmation on that?
Liberation date, August 23 is an official day of the city in Kharkiv. It's hard to tell how we celebrated it this week still being under enemy siege. But also it is a huge feel of pride everyone of us feeling today. In this war Kharkiv hasn't been taken even once, and will not be.
@@redsun9261 By your definition, shall Germany invade Kaliningrad and Poland invade west Belarus? Those were east Prussia and part of the polish commonwealth not long ago. Russia is doing a fascist war of aggression and there is no justification of it.
I got news for you. When this is over Russia will have Nikolaev, Odesa and Kharkov. Most independant thinkers who don't follow the mainstream media, which simply parrots Kiev press releases, know this war is being lost by Ukraine. "Fortress Donbas" is slowly falling apart as Ukrainian soldiers are being used as cannon fodder. Don't delude yourself. Russians will not tolerate anti-Russian Nazis as neighbours and there are a lot those from Western Ukraine who call the shots in Kiev.
I don’t write often but I gladly admit that after every episode I’m left surprised by the clarity and skill with which these small history lessons are created and delivered. Supremely awesome. Excelsior!
It's actually a pretty big history lesson overall. Most documentaries are 1-3 hours long, and cover the entire war. This is roughly 15-25 minutes for each individual week.
I have a cool story from a US WW2 bomber man in my neighborhood. He was in the lead bomber of a formation, and they got pounded by flak. One of the guys had luckily moved from that spot just moments before. Their hydraulics were busted and they couldn't land. The formation went higher in elevation and avoided the flak. This neighbor of mine went on the outside of the bomber to fix the hydraulics. They would have to lower in elevation so he could breathe. He fixed it and they were able to make it back and land just fine.
Amazing. If he is still alive and capable try to record his story. When I was young we had a priest who lived in our area who survived the Bataan Death March. One of our religion classes was having him tell his story to us kids when we were only 11 or 12 years old. I think listening to him spurred my lifelong intreast in WWII history.
Given how many times Kharkiv/Kharkov has been invaded and seized in World War I, the Russian Civil War, World War II, and now the Russo-Ukrainian War, it might be the most fought-over city in the past 120 years.
It could be argued this week marked a turning point in the war: that last clip of the Germans launching what is in essence an air-to-surface cruise missile is that point in history where the current war changes from using technology that came out of the previous war (WWI) and starts using technology that will mark future wars.
Thank you Smudge, very glad you're enjoying them! If you haven't yet, please join the TimeGhost Army today to help us make more episodes like these! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
U-Boat Hunt in Mediterranean , Bay of Biscay and Atlantic On the night of August 22, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Easton and the Greek destroyer Pindos (ex-HMS Bolebroke), escorting convoy MKF 22 off Sicily, found German submarine U-458 , commanded by Kurt Diggins, age twenty-nine, by passive hydrophone near the island of Pantelleria. The warships blew U-458 to the surface with thirty depth charges and hit her with gunfire, then HMS Easton rammed and sank U-458. Twelve Germans were killed in this action; the warships fished out thirty-nine of the U-458 crew, including Diggins. Two U-boats that had sailed on August 1 from Bordeux but returned to France, resailed in company to American waters on August 16. These were the famous old Drumbeat boat, the Type IXB submarine U-123, and Type IXC submarine U-523, commanded by Horst von Schroeter and Werner Pietzsch, respectively. In the dark early hours of the seventh day out, August 22, a Leigh Light-equipped Wellington bomber of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 179 caught and bombed U-523 while leaving Bay of Biscay. Pietzsch dived and escaped, but the Wellington’s report alerted surface ships passing in the vicinity, including Royal Navy close escort of a convoy en route from the British Isles to Gibraltar. Unaware of the proximity of enemy surface ships, on the night of August 24-25 Pietzsch ran on the surface off Vigo , Spain. Royal Navy destroyer HMS Wanderer and the corvette HMS Wallflower of the convoy escort got U-523 on radar and caught her by complete surprise. Shaken, Pietzsch dived to elude, but HMS Wanderer, commanded by Reginald F. (Bob) Whinney, immediately found the boat on sonar and commenced a dogged depth-charge attack, which HMS Wallflower soon joined. Pietzsch went so deep (to 880 feet, some crewmen asserted) that the hull “groaned” and the interior wood trim “splintered” from the immense sea pressure. Finally Pietzsch gave up and surfaced to scuttle, taking gunfire from both warships that fatally damaged U-523. That fire killed about a dozen Germans before they could jump from the sinking U-boat. The destroyers HMS Wanderer and HMS Hurricane, the corvette HMS Wallflower, and the convoy rescue ship Zamalek fished thirty-seven Germans from the water, including Pietzsch. Near Cape Finisterre, Allied surface ships also found and depth-charged von Schroeter in U-123 but he got away. Control assigned the boat to patrol the Trinidad area, but later modified the orders to include the “bauxite route” farther south, if von Schroeter chose to go there. He did and on September 21, he found and attacked a convoy of tankers and Liberty ships off French Guiana that had a powerful sea and air escort. He claimed two definite hits and three maybes, but these have not been confirmed in Allied records. Another Type VII U-Boat returning from American waters, the U-134, commanded by Hans-Günther Brosin, who had shot down a blimp in the Florida Straits, also ran into fatal trouble. On August 21, a Wildcat-Avenger team from US Navy “jeep” carrier USS Croatan, escorting convoy UGS 14, attacked U-134 but Brosin escaped. Three nights later, on August 24, a Leigh Light-equipped Wellington bomber of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 179, piloted by a Canadian, Donald F. McRae, found and attacked U-134 in the face of heavy flak at Bay of Biscay. McRae dropped six depth charges that destroyed U-134 with all hands. The loss of U-tankers also led to the deletion of a Type IXD2 U-cruiser from group Monsun, the new foray to the Indian Ocean. This was the U-847, commanded by Ritterkreuz holder Herbert Kuppisch, who sailed from Kiel on July 6, struck ice in the Denmark Strait, and aborted to Norway, arriving on July 20. After repairs, Kuppisch resailed on July 29, but Control reassigned him to serve as a provisional tanker for the boats returning from the Americas and West Africa. Kuppisch reached his refueling area in mid-August. His first task was to replenish some inbound boats from the Americas that had been assigned to refuel from the XB minelayer U-117, herself a provisional tanker that, as related, was sunk on August 7. On the morning of August 27, Kuppisch in Type IXC40 U-tanker U-847 refueled six more homebound boats. These were Paul Siegmann in Type VII U-230, returning from a mine-laying mission off Norfolk; Kurt Neide in Type VII U-415, returning from a barren patrol in the Trinidad area; Eberhard Dahlhaus in Type VII U-634, returning from a fruitless patrol in the Caribbean; Gerhard Feiler in Type VII U-653, also returning from a luckless patrol in the Caribbean; Heinz Rahe in Type VII submarine U-257, returning from a barren patrol to the Freetown area; and the new Ritterkreuz winner Georg Staats in Type IXC submarine U-508, returning from the Freetown and Gulf of Guinea areas. Like Emmermann in U-172, the first watch officer on U-230, Herbert Werner, believed that Kuppisch was insufficiently prepared to cope with enemy air. Several days later, US Navy “jeep” carrier USS Card relieved the “jeep” carrier USS Core, which had developed turbine-vibration problems. On the morning of August 27, two Wildcat fighterss and an Avenger dive bomber from USS Card found Kuppisch in U-847 in mid Atlantic. The two Wildcat fighters, piloted by Jack H. Stewart and Frederick M. Rountree, strafed and forced the boat to dive. Pilot Ralph W. Long in the Avenger bomber dropped a Fido acoustic homing torpedo just ahead of the swirl that hit and sank her target. Nothing further was ever heard from U-847. She was the sixth IXD2 U-cruiser to be lost, the fifth within the 104-day period from May 16 to August 27. Hitler's U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr.
It is really interesting to see how they themselves thought of the war as not something without the final that it does. We think of things like Italy being invaded as obvious, as opposed to a large plan to invade through the Balkans like they did in WW1 which ultimately crippled the Central Powers. They thought the war could last a lot longer than it did in our timeline, people putting plans for 1947 making the war a decade long, or that it could come through completely different fronts. Seeing the war from this perspective is really something our way of thinking with the hindsight that we do doesn´t offer. They didn´t even know for sure how the world was going to operate with the Cold War split or that Germany was going to be divided and if so into how many ways. Poland still looked like it had about half of Belarus on maps that didn´t acknowledge the German and Soviet attack, or that Germany still had Silesia and Köningsberg even before the war. Fascinating!
The BRD (US occupied Germany) did not recognize Poland for most of the cold war. We had german Altas at home, with eastern Prussia from 1970! It was just mentioned in brackets, that this part of Germany is "momentarily under polnish administration". Must have been a strange world for polish people at that time. On one side the soviet union and on the other side, still the same old Nazis, but now with US support...
@@Casa-de-hongos Dutch atlases also had, at the time, the old 1939 border still present with a faint line, and the old German names of towns and cities listed cursively underneath the Polish names. The reasoning being that until there was a definitive peace treaty the old situation kinda still exists. Which is why our Atlases also still show Israel's borders at the 1967 border and the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights as occupied, awaiting a final legal settlement. And the West-German state wasn't the same old Nazi's, although there were a lot still present, just like in the former East-Germany, which was for all intents and purposes the old Nazi state under new management.
Logically they had no way of knowing when the war would end. Only a fool would assume in 1943 to have known the outcome of the war when it did. And plan accordingly. You can do that but what if that date arrives......, and it goes on. And now you are out of supplies and troops because you had not planned beyond that? So they had to plan for a war that lasted for a lot longer so more then enough men and supplies were in the pipeline if needed.
@@Casa-de-hongos The USSR used this to keep Poland at their side as the Soviet Union was the only entity to be able to protect Poland from having its land taken Away
Thank you Plutonium! That's quite a lot of episodes you watched, and we really can't thank you enough for catching up and watching the whole war with us. I hope you'll stay tuned every week from now until whenever this terrible war ends!
@@WorldWarTwo Hey, episode was great as always, I actually found this channel from Sabaton History. So thank you for making such entertaining historical content.
"Messina is the same distance to Berlin as the Russians." Is it though? It makes you wonder if the Allied leadership had topographic maps. There are A LOT of mountains going that route to Berlin.
After the war one of the German Generals, (it may have been "Smiling" Albert Kesselring) gave the allies a piece of advice." Next time you want to invade Italy don't start at the bottom..." He was right. All those mountain ranges, valleys and rivers turned it into a grinding slog.
@@snapdragon6601 Thing is, he was a dick and a war criminal. Who tried to make himself useful to the Americans after the war to avoid getting hanged as he should have for his war crimes. His word kinda suspect. In the real world military operations are determined by logistics, the one thing the Germans were clueless about. The invasion of Salerno really was the furthest place north the Allies could invade the Italian mainland, using cover from airbases in Sicily. Any invasion up north would involve taking Sardinia and Corsica first. Which would clue the Germans as to what would happen next. And even supported from Corsica an invasion into Genua or Tuscany still means you have to cross the Appenine mountains. The best place to invade Italy and avoid the Appenines would be at Venice. But that means you have to sail up the Adriatic and run the gauntlet of German occupied Italy and Yugoslavia. So in 1943, Salerno really was the only option. Probably why the Germans maintained enough forces there to almost kick Mark Clark back into the sea.
Yeah, landing on the southern tip of Italy was a stupid decision on the Allied side. Sicily okay, but then they should have landed in Central Italy at least after Italys surrender. Would have propably shortened the war by a year
Hi Indy Another exciting week. At this stage of war, It looks like war changing and going towards end. But on another hand it looks like it will prolong for another two years. Seems like more bloody war ahead. Thanks for another wonderful episode.
Somewhat related to that topic is the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Korea and the Northern islands of Japan. There seems to be a scarcity of detail of this theater.
I do believe I forgot to comment when I watched this episode this morning. Ouch. 😱 Somehow, the memory of forgetting just came to me. Hehe. Every time I hear about Kharkov on this channel, I think of the modern war going on today.
_Comrades, today you have achieved great glory! Because of your courage and strength, the German army has been driven back and the city of Kharkov is once again ours! From this day forward we shall not take another step back until this war is won! Fight on!_ - Commissar 11:05 This week on August 22 1943, the twelfth and thirteenth mission of the 2004 video game *Call of Duty: United Offensive* , the *Kharkov 1 & 2 levels* under *Private Yuri Petrenko* begins at Kharkov in the Soviet Union. In both missions, you will engage in urban combat against German positions in the city as part of the Fourth Battle of Kharkov. The train station section in particular is somewhat notorious for being very difficult to complete at Veteran difficulty.
Hope you guys present a good coverage of Battle of Denipr, which was the actual climax of the eastern front, yet most people only know Babarosa, Stalingrad, Berlin etc.
No, operation Bagration was the climax of the Eastern Front. The casualties on the German side and the amount of territory taken was far greater during operation Bagration
@@tylerclayton6081 Nah Smolensk and Dneiper were decisive . Bagration was unimpressive. Smolensk was an offensive of 1.2 million vs 800,00 germans . The Germans tied down 40% of their strength and 55 divisions. The offensive was also one against actual opposition while Bagration was a cake Walk . The German defenses at smolensk were very well prepared and soviet forces were underequipped while Bagration saw massive soviet superiority in everything. Dneiper and Smolensk was a display of true quality.
soviet forces actually broke a defensive line in those battles which was the Panther Wotan line . They also had to cross rivers with their garbage naval forces and hold back counterattack.
Suorov This plan was enormous both in regard of its daring and of forces committed to it, was executed through several operations: the Smolensk operation, ...the Donbass Operation, the left-bank Ukraine operation..
The videos about Sicily but there wasn't any mention of air drop Patton ordered (I think it was in early August). It was one of the worst in the war, something like half of the paratrooper were killed from friendly fire. Rick Atkinson had a story in The Day of Battle of a major who survived the drop was running around ordering every tank crew he could find to stop shooting.
Love the show as always, however the video title has the wrong date, August 28 instead of 27. Just wanted to point that out before the main release and a hundred other people notice and comment. Anyway, love you all, keep up the great work!
Field Marshal Kliest has the remnants of Army Group A ,sequestered and in the Kuban Pocket with only the 17th Army ? I guess its a group much as a Battle detachment bigger than a bread box ,smaller than a pantry?. I heard through research that Army Group A( or Kuban ?) had upwards to 700,000 soldiers in 1943. I guess the 13th Panzer wasn't being of any help there,in a defeensive capacity ,and with the loss of 2,000 or more tanks since Kursk ,it couldn't hide down in the Kuban for too much longer !. The great movie by Samuel Penkinpah ,the ""Iron Cross '' with Mason,Coburn,the great Maximilian Schell was depicting the Kuban Front in the film, reports or rumours that there was a followup to the first, though I believe Sam didn't do another one ! A great novel also. Kliest did a excellent performance causing 5 times to his 1 ,in the Pocket,
But the host isn't French, isn't speaking French, and the name Louis has been anglicized. So it is proper for a native English speaker who's speaking English to pronounce it with the "s" not silent.
@@lordgarion514 You miss the point. In British English the final "s" in that first name is definitely silent, distinguishing it from "Lewis". That is how Mountbatten pronounced it. American English is different, sure, but Indie tries to pronounce names and places as much as possible with the LOCAL pronunciation.
German General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin (4 September 1891 - 9 January 1963) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Germany during World War II. After the war he was introduced by Britain's Sir B. H. Liddell Hart to the military historian Michael Howard. Howard, who had fought in Italy during the war, recalls him saying, "May I give you a word of advice? Next time you invade Italy, do not start at the bottom."
Lidell Hart should have replied : "Invent a time machine and give us long range fighters and medium tactical bombers to cover any bridgehead from air back then"
@@merdiolu I would have said something like, "If you invade somewhere like Russia, get the logistics right first." I think the Allies were a little too cautious but it was not that long ago that the Germans seemed invincible.
SPOILER Next year Von Senger will make sure he is photographed helping the Italian abbot of Monte Cassino get into a German staff car while escaping the destruction of his monastery by Allied bombers.
My uncle William St John ran aviation fuel into Trieste. He said they were under radio silence and ships were not clearly marked. He said everyone was! shooting at them! He survived as a Canadian Naval Officer and repaired TV's, radio's, and other electronics in Ottawa running from his house.
When I see these titanic battles on the eastern front, I wonder: what is the true figure for Soviet and German losses? I've read that the USSR lost 8.6 million military personnel and almost 20 million civilians, but I've read about 10 to 13 million military personnel. I don't think we'll ever really know. And Germany and its allies were over 5 million. It's almost surreal to think about the level of violence on this front. It almost makes the western front a picnic.
There are- according to a few Russian historians- apparently secret 1946 USSR census figures that show 22 million military and 20 million civilian dead.
@@JohnJohn-pe5kr Band of Brothers vs The Pacific portrays this well. The Germans were definitely hated by the allies troops in France but it never reached levels of what you read in Eugene Sledges book.Japanese soldiers disebowled and cut the genitals off and cut off tattoos of dead Americans and likewise American soldiers didn't take prisoners usually (for fear of suicides). Some would collect the gold teeth off Japanese soldiers and others collected skulls. The Pacific was absolutely brutal.
That is true... to an extent. The Germans did lose quite a number of men in the west, too, but these were as POWs. When that is factored in, the western front gets a huge boost in the ratio. The eastern front was undoubtedly bigger and more important, but the western front should not be underestimated in the damage it caused to the Germans.
@@tesnacloud It was a team effort by UK, USA, and USSR. UK brains (science and intelligence breakthroughs), USA brawn (industrial production was ~1/3 output total of all combatants), and Russian blood (death toll >20,000,000). Anglo/American bombing raids pulled German fighters from the Russian front in the second half of 1943. The Western front was regarded as flies to be swatted away while the war of annihilation in the East was the priority, right down to commandeered supply trains by to feed the death camps.
You know , when you check the Axis casaulties in Sicily it is really interesting how popular history narrative of WWII in West was written especially biased to the favour of German military or German army commanders/operations (since after same German generals were employed in West Germany under NATO they gave first hand resources which put themselves under favorable light and shaped the Western military tactical and operational doctrine according to their perspective afterwards) In Sicily , Germans lost %80 of their panzers and almost halft of their artillery , left behind back in Sicily along with %20 of their troops killed and captured hors de combat permenantly. I mean can you imagine if any Allied operation after 1942-43 winter era , resulted %80 of tanks lost ? In post war critism of popular historians , those Allied generals involved , would be torn apart mercilessly. Instead Allied post war writers over praise German evacuation from a mere three mile water barrier in Strait of Messina (almost like a river crossing width) that was extremely well defended by anti aircraft fire and shore batteries/mines but downplay the difficulties of Allied armies race to Messina over a mountain terrain that was easy to defend and suitable to delaying rearguard action. There is an emphasis on Western history summary that over emphasize Allied failures , missed oppourtunities , "what might have beens" with decades of hindsight that never takes the conditions , limitations , inexperience of Allied armies (still learning their trade) and predictions / priorties of Allies commanders and decision makers into account but overpraise German military too much.
@@spiz555s3 Also because post-war, Allied propaganda also made the Germans out to be better equipped than they actually were. For instance when people think of the bunkers, they don't realize most were just standard pillboxes. The gigantic bunkers like in Saving Private Ryan were few and far between, Tigers were far less numerous and reliable than what is shown in media, etc...
Also a lot of German military leaders wrote their books while being employed by allied militaries, directly or not, because they had the most experience of fighting soviet union. so praising German army and, thus, themselves, was a good thing for their personal careers and/or restoration of western German millitary
Historians also seem to ignore that it didn't matter where the Allies landed on Sicily, they would have faced the same problem - getting around Mount Etna to reach Messina. I think the Allies did the right thing by landing on adjacent invasion areas and linking up. It enabled them to shift forces back and forth to meet various Axis threats, and avoided the possibility of defeat in detail.
@@Darkdaej On that note, I would also recommend researching about how little MP40 (German automatic infantry weapons) were actually produced. A huge majority of the German army only had old Kar98Ks, which weren't bad, but really weren't any better than Allied smal arms. Turns out MP40s were incredibly rare, only elite units carried that, while in all movies and video games you can see 90% of the Germans having MP40s. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know that I was surprised when I found out just how rare they really were.
Hello there! Great show! I was wondering, since the Campaign in Sicily is pretty much over, can you do a special about the Allies management (or mismanagement to be more precise) of the collaboration with the Mafia and the consequences it had on Italy in the future? Considering that under Mussolini the criminal organisation kept a low profile and after the arrival of the Allies they came back to buisness as powerful as they never had been. As an Italian, I am deeply curious about it.
Todays' intro was definietly a better one. If I ever wanted ti introduce someone else to this series I would show them this one as an examaple of high quality intro. Just a random thought that I had while watching.
Soviet production was 34,900 aircraft, 24,089 tanks and self propelled guns and 48,400 artillery in 1943. My source says Germany produced 24,807 aircraft, 17,300 tanks and self propelled artillery, and 27,000 artillery in 1943
@@caryblack5985 During this period the Germans were producing about 1 STUG (self-propelled gun) for every tank, so about 12,000 STUGs sounds about right. Is a STUG an AFV? Your guess is as good as mine.
7:04 - the photo is odd as there seem to be some Allied soldiers. At least one man seems to be wearing a Brodie helmet. Were the Germans transporting POWs to mainland Italy to prevent them being liberated if they remained in Sicily?
It's weird to think that in little over a year you'll be discussing operation Market Garden which seems to be so close to the end of the war, yet at the same time you still have so much of the war to cover.
This week in French politics. On the 24th of August, the Law on Craftsmanship is signed in Vichy. It is however never applicated because no decree were enacted. The project was a regional corporatism for each profession or community of workers. Because there is no Assembly, this law, as all the laws passed during Vichy time, goes only through the Council of Ministers and Petain because as of July 1940, they are the only legitimate legislative power in fonction (The Assemblies are still legaly there but are indefinitely deferred). (More information about some other corporatist laws passed by Vichy, in response to this comment) The 26th, the CFLN is officially recognized as a government by the USSR, the United-Kingdom and the United States, the latter made a dubious proclamation on what exactly this government is, in order to leverage the possible “occupation” of France in 1944 (the CFLN would be the same as the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories, AMGOT, in Italy). For the next few months, 37 countries will follow them (with China for example). The 27th, Albert Lebrun, former president of France, under surveillance in Vizille by Italians who previously told him to escape, but Lebrun refused, and André François-Poncet, ex-ambassador in Berlin and then in Rome, are arrested by the Gestapo with the help of Klaus Barbie, on order of Hitler when Italians withdraw from France. They are sent to the Castle of Itter, with other French personalities.
So, about the laws on corporatism. It is part of the Revolution National, the unorganized and unprepared reactionary political program of Vichy France. The law that was passed the 24th is the same principle two laws : The Peasant Corporation law of 1940: by 1943, this one is a half failure, in some department there is a lot of municipal corporations, however there is little “return to the land” from urban population, and some of these corporations are empty shells, worse some are fronts for clandestine unions militating against Vichy’s policy as the “Confédération générale de l'agriculture” (a socialist union). Most of the critics from the right and far-right, which both advocates some level of corporatism, tell that the Corporation paysanne is “unnational” and serve the occupier, which is de facto true. The second one is the “Charte du travail” of the 4th of October 1941, a law on labor, a synthesis of a lots of influences: syndicalism, the Italian fascism Carta del Lavoro of 1927, social-Catholicism, anti-Enlightenment of Mauras (corporatist, antiliberal), the Portuguese model of association between workers and employers and the French employers’ unions’ demands. The main line was to end the class struggle, the alliance and negotiation of employees and employers, and a peaceful social order well organized, based on collaboration and on differentiation between professions. This law makes at several level (companies, municipals, departments, and regions) the “professional families” in line with the corporatism view, with unique and mandatory unions inside a social committee. Strikes and lock-out are outlaw. A minimal salary is instituted and fixed by the State (never put in place by 1944). This law of compromise is unclear, meant to be elucidate in application decrees that will never be enacted. The reality is that this new organization is a failure, some professional families were organized but the majority never happened. Unique unions are a total failure too and social committees didn’t make any real measures because of the war troubles and the impossible of real equal collaboration between employer and employee.
@ToughAncientSpark I will see if we can get a definitive answer from our map team but I highly suspect that they are areas of floodplains/marshes and lakes which have been turned purple due to our colouring of the map. Take a look at the map at 12:42 and compare one side of the front line in the Kuban to the other
Did some fact finding research. They are indeed lakes, artificial lakes, used to mine salt. That's why some of those lakes are right on the sea separated by causeways. Apparently, Ukraine is famous for it's pink salt. Still doesn't explain why the map maker chose purple color to delineate them on the map.
That German radio guided bomb had its first test with disappointing results though that is disputed below I note. I will sum up its most impressive upcoming success by saying "Arrivaderchee (sorry about my Italian) Roma, goodbye goodbye goodbye". The technological war was such an important part of eventual victory and in this case, the Allies quickly worked out ways to deal with this wonder weapon of the Nazis.
@@Ramzi1944 I sure am! It was heading for Malta to surrender but when the Germans worked that out a bomber hit it with 2 of these FX (?) bombs. There was a massive internal explosion and then the Roma, a beautiful looking battleship, went down very quickly taking the admiral and much of the crew with it. One of these bombs also hit the American cruiser, Savanah, I think, badly damaging it during the landings at Salerno but successes were thin on the sea after that.
@@aleksazunjic9672 What you say is not correct. Almost immediately, the Allies had a jammer in operation but it was only partially successful. Almost 200 sailors died on Savannah at Salerno. The light cruiser Uganda was also hit along with HMS Warspite. By the time of the landing at Anzio, the Allies had an improved Type 650 jammer which proved quite successful against the Fritz-X. At the Normandy Landing, the combination of Allied air superiority and ship mounted jammers removed the threat. A Norwegian destroyer Svenner was the only ship at Normandy that may have been hit by a Fritz-X.
@@aleksazunjic9672 On further reading I discover that even Svenner was probably not hit by Fritz-X. Fritz-X had been credited with the loss of hospital ship Newfoundland at Salerno and destroyer HMS Janus and lightcruiser HMS Spartan at Anzio. However, these ships were hit by Hs 293's as shown by the nature of the damage and witness reports. As for you, your last sentence shows exactly what your agenda is.
After the Quebec conference Roosevelt visits Ottawa on the 25th. For security reasons the visit is only announced a few hours in advance. Roosevelt's personal train arrives at the Nicholas street platform and he makes the short trip to Parliament Hill by limousine. There he makes a speech in front of many dignitaries and crowd of over 30,000 Ottawa residents. Close to 200 reporters are there to cover the event. He speaks about the recent victories in Sicily and Kiska to which Canadian troops had taken part and of the discussion with Canada and Britain at the recent conference, likening it to meeting with members of the same family. He also likens the Axis powers to a "band of gangsters". After the speech an aide lays a wreath at the war memorial while Roosevelt looks on and the RCMP band plays the hymn Abide With Me. He and the PM, Mackenzie King, lunch with the Governor General at Rideau Hall. From there they visit Kingsmere, King's estate in the Gatineau Hills north of the city. They end the day with a private meeting at King's residence, Laurier House.
Unrelated to the war, but very related to Churchill, on 24 August, John Christie, a War Reserve Policeman, starts a second job - as a serial killer. He is eventually caught in the 1950s and hanged for his crimes, but not before getting Timothy Evans sent to the gallows in his stead (for murders of his wife and baby daughter no less). (spoilers) The Churchill connection comes from his government launching an inquiry into the Timothy Evans case after Christie was caught - it seemed rather coincidential that both Evans *and* Christie both killed people in the same way in the same house and buried their victims in the same backyard (Christie also found/made an alcove in the walls of the house, where more bodies were found) without knowing of each other. However, that's exactly what the inquiry found. A second inquiry in the 1960s absolved him of killing his daughter, which seems strange since she was buried alongside his wife. This case became a major focal point in the later abolition of the death penalty in the UK
Christie murdered at least two women while a reserve policeman. He actually used the thigh bone of one to prop up a fence in the back yard - a good example of hiding in plain sight. He may have murdered others - wartime was a good setting for making people disappear.
@@WorldWarTwo He used them for storage. He moved out rather suddenly and the next tenant decided to do some redecorating. He pulled down wallpaper in the alcove and made some shocking discoveries.
I find myself when I'm teaching my high school economics classes, I find myself saying "however" and "see you next time". Do I owe Indy some royalties?
You do owe royalties - Payable through keeping up your good work educating young minds. Please do stay tuned, and thanks for doing the difficult work of being a teacher.
Operation Husky proved a resounding success. The Allies landed on the southern and south-eastern coasts of Sicily on 10 July 1943 and within a month the Germans and their lacklustre Italian allies had been driven back to Messina, in the north-eastern tip of the island. The Germans then evacuated the island, pulling over 80,000 German and Italian troops to safety. Finally on 16 August Messina was captured, and the campaign brought to an end. However, the fighting didn’t stop there. In May Churchill had persuaded Roosevelt that Eisenhower should try to knock Italy out of the war, as a continuation of Husky. Inevitably this meant an invasion of the Italian mainland. While the fighting was raging in Sicily, Eisenhower’s staff was busy drawing up plans for this next stage of the conflict. During the next few weeks several schemes were developed, all involving landings either around Naples and Rome, or else on the southern coast of Italy. The more northerly invasion sites offered the most substantial strategic rewards if the landings succeeded, but conversely they also involved the greatest risk. By contrast, a landing on the southern coast was virtually risk-free, but the strategic advantages were minor. While a landing around Rome was discounted early on because the beaches lay beyond the reach of Allied air cover, other invasion plans were developed that gave Eisenhower a range of options. Operations Barracuda, Gangway and Mustang all involved landings in the Bay of Naples. However, these were eventually considered to be too risky, as the Germans would be able to reinforce the battlefield far more rapidly than the Allies could, while the beaches lay too far from the airfields in Sicily to permit all but the most minimal air cover for the operation. A far safer option was Operation Slapstick, which involved the landing of General Clark’s Fifth Army at Taranto, supported by a drop by the US 82nd Airborne Division. This too was discarded, as the whole operation was considered too cautious. For the same reason Operation Goblet, a landing by General Montgomery’s Eighth Army at Crotone in Calabria was also abandoned, as was Operation Buttress, the landing of Fifth Army’s 10th (British) Corps in the same area. Next came the drafting of plans for an independent parachute drop by the 82nd, either around Naples (Operation Giant I), or around Rome (Operation Giant II). Both were designed to block the flow of German reinforcements to the main landing area to the south, but both operations were rightly considered too perilous. In the end these plans were adapted by the Airborne commander when General Clark asked the 82nd to carry out a drop in support of the Salerno landings. By the end of August it was clear that although the Germans still held southern Italy, their troops were in poor shape, and the Wehrmacht needed time to replenish the men and equipment lost during the Sicilian campaign. The normally cautious Montgomery urged an immediate landing in Calabria to take advantage of this - to establish a foothold on the Italian ‘toe’ before the enemy could recover. His aggressiveness was encouraged by the favourable political situation in Italy. After a string of military disasters the Italian leadership was anxious to make peace with the Allies. A new government was formed under the leadership of Marshal Badoglio, who promptly entered secret negotiations with the Allies. Meanwhile Eisenhower and General Alexander, commanding 15th Army Group, decided to launch a two-pronged invasion. The first element involved the landing of Montgomery’s Eighth Army in Calabria and Apulia: the British commander would then push the Germans back as his men advanced northwards. Meanwhile Clark’s Fifth Army would land further up the western coast of Italy, in a bid to secure the vital port of Naples. By the time the two armies met, the Allies would have secured the whole of Southern Italy, and would be able to use Naples as a supply base and conduit for reinforcements. Salerno 1943 - Angus Konstam
The great and last FOURTH battle of Kharkov! Only ever mentioned in Paul Carrell's book "Scorched Earth"! A great but unknown tank battle after Kursk Where Rotmistrov lost almost 400 tanks attempting to capture the city and the Germans were forced to abandon Kharkov for the fourth and final time!
I do not know which ship it was exactly but a Royal Navy vessel managed to disrupt the radio signals to the guided bomb by having as much crew as possible wave their elektric razors around causing the missle to miss.
@@todiathink8864 it's not true, however, after the initial attacks in August 1943 the British went to considerable effort to develop jamming devices. These were first deployed in late September 1943, too late for Salerno. The system met with some success, though it proved cumbersome and easily overwhelmed if large numbers of weapons were deployed simultaneously
@@darkorodic638 because they'd have intelligence on the weapon. There would been radio traffic they would have picked up everytime it was fired as well.
After the initial attacks in August 1943 the British went to considerable effort to develop jamming devices. These were first deployed in late September 1943, too late for Salerno. The system met with some success, though it proved cumbersome and easily overwhelmed if large numbers of weapons were deployed simultaneously Then in early 1944, the UK began to deploy its Type 650 transmitter which employed a different approach to interfering with the FuG 203/230 radio link on a Fritz X, by jamming the Straßburg receiver's intermediate frequency (IF) section. The FuG 230 receiver's IF section operated at a 3 MHz frequency and the Type 650 appears to have been quite successful in interfering with Fritz X ordnance deployments, especially because the operator did not have to attempt to find which of the eighteen selected Kehl-Straßburg command frequencies were in use and then manually tune the jamming transmitter to one of them. The Type 650 automatically defeated the receiver, regardless which radio frequency had been selected for a missile.
Hey Indy and team. I don't know if you guys noticed, but your map shows the Hague as a different dot/city than Rotterdam and Amsterdam, but similar to other cities which host their nation's government. So what I want to know from you if it's actually correct that that different 'dot' actually shows where a national government is located rather than a capital?
Another great episode. Kharkov changed hands how many times? "That ain't nothing. Located in the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester was the most contested town in the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865), changing hands more than seventy times and earning its reputation (in the words of a British observer) as the shuttlecock of the Confederacy." -- Encyclopedia Virginia Still very rough for the people of Kharkov. If Gorillas are irregular feed them more bananas. Do you think the US and UK considered The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic as the unwanted ally. Looks like it. Obviously one must choose between the lesser of two weevils. A lot was learned by the disastrous air drop for the 82nd Airborne in Sicily. Markings for the Allied aircraft carrying paratroopers and supply drops prevented the same disaster from happening again thereafter including Normandy and the Nederlands operations.
SPOILER Minus the USSR the Axis, or at least the European end of it, might have pulled off a draw if only facing the Western Allies. D Day might well have failed.
"It I certainly not all down hill from here for anyone" well apart from the millions of innocent people caught in the middle of this madness. I'm reminded of Hawkeye from MASH about war being much worse than Hell. Because at least there are no innocent bystanders in Hell.
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Loved the choice of photo from Kharkov at 11:21 ... The banner above the cavalry says in Ukrainian: "Long live the military alliance of the peoples of the USSR, England (sic!) and the USA. Nice!
Correct. The caption says it was taken in 1942 but the Red Army soldiers on horseback appear to be wearing the M1943 tunic with shoulderboards, so I would say 1943 or later.
there is a lack of northern front activities here. the 3. defensive battle south of lake ladoga (3. Abwehrschlacht südlich des Ladogasees) ends for my great grandpa on the 24th. his duty there was for 1 month, starting 27 of july. now his wehrpass only reports about defensive battles before leningrad.
Great episode as always team! * Bringing this up based on the opening comment Indy made about the race for Berlin in this week's episode. * It has never made sense to me the argument that some people make saying the Western Allies should have pushed to beat the USSR to Berlin. Could the Allies have gotten there and either captured or helped in capturing the city? Yes, they could have done so. But it made no sense for the Allies to do so either. The agreement for how split-up Germany would be handled after the end of the war was already established by the point that Eisenhower had the option to send the US 9th Army to the West side of Berlin. If Eisenhower was to send William Simpson's US 9th Army to rush ahead to either capture or help the USSR capture Berlin all it would have done was cause the Western Allies to take more casualties in what was already the bloodiest war in human history. This is because Berlin was in the USSR's agreed-upon territory in Germany that the USSR would get to hold control over after Germany finally surrendered. So if the Simpson's US 9th Army captured the city or portions of it they would have had to hand the territory back over to the USSR anyway just like the Western Allies had to do in the areas that Patton's 3rd Army and Alexander Patch's US 7th Army pushed into and captured during the ending period of WW2. So what is the reward the US and other Western Allies would have gotten if they captured or helped capture Berlin? I would say all they would have gotten if they captured the city, parts of it or just held the Western front of the encircled German capital city is some more "glory". And that would have been at the cost of likely tens of thousands of casualties on the US side all for some more glory. Since as I said before above, the US would not get to hold control of the territory that Simpson took as Berlin was in the area that the USSR was to get to control after the war. And needing more "glory" in WW2 for the winning side is pointless as well. That only changes if you are a nation just getting into WW2 at the very end such as the rebuilt French 1st Army serving under General Devers 6th Army Group, Devers also had control of the US 7th Army, which was fighting much further South of Berlin to be able to try to take Berlin. ** Side note, Jacob Devers is such a forgotten WW2 General, the man held the same responsibility as other massively celebrated generals like Omar Bradley (12th army group) and Montgomery (21st army group) and yet unless you are a WW2 history buff you will most likely have never even heard of the man. He even controlled the same number of armies in WW2 as Montgomery did, both controlling 2 (7th US and 1st French Armies for Devers and 2nd British and 1st Canadian Armies along with a US army here and there for brief periods of time during the war for Montgomery). Bradley of course had the largest Army Group in his 12th Army Group controlling the US 1st, 3rd, 9th and 15th Armies with the US 3rd Army under Patton being by far the largest Western Allied Army during WW2 by the end of the war. You can even make the argument that Patton's 3rd army was like another Allied Army Group since he controlled 18 divisions by the end of the war. Montgomery had 18 divisions under his control at the end of WW2 over his 2 armies in his 21st Army Group. Devers had 25 divisions in his Army Group 6 over his 2 armies at the end of WW2. And Mark Clark in Italy had 25 divisions under his control over 2 armies at the end of the war as well. Omar Bradly of course had WAY more divisions then any of the other 3 Western Army Group commanders under his Army Group 12 at the end of the war since he controlled the massive US 3rd army as well as 3 more Armies in the US 1st, 9th and 15th Armies (so Bradly had 2 more armies under his control then any of the other 3 army group commanders did along with controlling the US 3rd army which was in terms of size could the claim to be another Army Group. It can even be argued that Patton's 3rd Army was the largest single army in all of WW2 because most German, Soviet, Japanese and Chinese armies' were normally in the size range of 3-8 divisions. The German 6th Army may have made it to 18 very damaged divisions by it's end when it was surrounded with many of the German 4th Panzer Armies divisions as well which were then put under German General Paulus's command in the pocket at Stalingrad. **
It's interesting that Stalin seemed to legitimately have no designs on Western Europe, or even Germany outside of the agreed upon boundaries. An Indy 'Stepping outside the timeline': the war goes very well, if extremely bloody, for the next few months for the Soviets. To the Americans and British it begins to look like Germany might collapse or the Soviets overrun the whole of Europe before they can begin the invasion of Normandy or cross the Alps from Italy. Some think its more likely that the alternative plans drawn up for an emergency intervention in France are more likely to happen than what will become the actual Overlord plans. In the run-up to the Tehran conference there is frantic discussion about what to do when, not if, Stalin attempts to get them to scrap their invasion of Western Europe and save the final victory and as much territory as they can gobble up for himself and the USSR. Of course when they get to Tehran, not only does Stalin still want an intervention in France, he also wants them to make additional landings in Southern France, for the allies to stop fucking around with little side-adventures in the Mediterranean, and for all that to happen as soon as possible. About the only thing he doesn't want is the allies to attack into the Balkans through Greece.
We're aware of the map placeholder at 4:28 and are working to have this video exchanged on TH-cam! We try our best, but sometimes things slip through.
Also the video title says August 28th, not 27th.
Also - FWIW - no week number in the title
We are continually amazed by the excellent quality of your productions!
Just to see how far you have come, compare this episode to e.g. the one of 8 december 2018... Not that those episodes were bad, they were excellent. But there are marked improvements...
Yup.....for the 4th and FINAL Time.
Thanks, fixed!
Now that we're getting close- I hope you guys cover the Tientsin and Italian embassy incident where Japan and Italy fought in China after the Italian capitulation/side switching in September.
We'll cover it
Primarily around the embassy compound which still stands today.
Mark Felton has a good video on it.
Thanks for the spoiler
@@serbangroza Sorry, I won't tell you how the war ends. Hahahah.
By May 1945 the Germans had "shortened their lines" significantly
Down to about 50 metres long
What about Norway?
Lol. Hitler's lines of Coke were very long by then though.
@@thurbine2411 It's a joke...
@@houndofzoltan i know.
@@houndofzoltan The point is it's a stupid joke that makes no sense.
17:58 A sidenote this week on August 27 1943 is that the first successful sinking on a warship by a guided missile attack occurs when the Royal Navy sloop HMS Egret is sunk after being hit by a German Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided glide bomb. However, this was actually not the first time it was used, as there was another successful attack two days earlier on HMS Bideford but it did not sink.
The Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided glide bomb kind of reminds me a bit of the Wasserfall surface-to-air missile that the Germans were developing but never used it in combat due to teething problems with control. Still, at least it did made it in the 2003 video game *Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII* .
Great piece of info, thanks.
Are you talking about the Fritz X guided bomb?
@@karstreitsma7316 Two different systems.
@@karstreitsma7316 we shall see Fritz -X in action too, and I think the results will be impressive, most impressive...
That was actually a great game, mostly forgotten.
17:15 During the war my grandmother was living in Watten, next to the Eperlecques blockhaus. She worked as a town hall clerk and was so jaded about the repeated bombing raids against the blockhaus that after a while she didn't go to the bomb shelter anymore. So many bombs fell on civilian areas that after a while there was no more room at the municipal morgue and the bodies had to be kept in the town hall basement. Some of them were blown to literal pieces, so the remains were shoved in a canvas bag with just the head sticking out for identification. She insists to this day (she'll turn 102 next month) that she could tell British from American bombers by the accuracy of the aiming.
SPOILER
It will be heavily attacked in 1944 in an attempt to counter V1 flying bombs.
At a tangent, but Watten was the scene of a training centre in the early 17th century for Catholic priests from England. At the time Watten was under Spanish Hapsburg control and was also Flemish-speaking. The priests were taught Flemish so they could preach to the locals. Eventually they would be sent back to England as missionary priests, with the risk of being executed if caught.
Thank you for sharing about your grandmother's terrible experiences during that time. I wish her well and a happy early birthday
Wow. I lived with a local family in Stuttgart in the 90s. The hoteldirektion Frau Schmidt remembered the bombings as a child. One could see the original concrete foundations and all the new buildings built on top. Whole town was flattened.
@Dave if she could tell the difference between british and american bombers by their accuracy, that begs the question: who was better?
@@bouncyrou1312 She's very firm that the British were more accurate, but I can't be certain it isn't confirmation bias on her part (i.e. "Not too much collateral damage today, must have been the RAF"). She says British bombers flew single-file unlike the American ones, any way to get confirmation on that?
Liberation date, August 23 is an official day of the city in Kharkiv. It's hard to tell how we celebrated it this week still being under enemy siege. But also it is a huge feel of pride everyone of us feeling today.
In this war Kharkiv hasn't been taken even once, and will not be.
You are a brave nation. Greetings from Polish friends.
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 May your people live in peace again soon.
You raise those rifle's and beat back the russian bear, God speed for you and all of ukraine the world is with u 100% ✊✊
@@redsun9261 By your definition, shall Germany invade Kaliningrad and Poland invade west Belarus?
Those were east Prussia and part of the polish commonwealth not long ago.
Russia is doing a fascist war of aggression and there is no justification of it.
I got news for you. When this is over Russia will have Nikolaev, Odesa and Kharkov. Most independant thinkers who don't follow the mainstream media, which simply parrots Kiev press releases, know this war is being lost by Ukraine. "Fortress Donbas" is slowly falling apart as Ukrainian soldiers are being used as cannon fodder. Don't delude yourself. Russians will not tolerate anti-Russian Nazis as neighbours and there are a lot those from Western Ukraine who call the shots in Kiev.
I don’t write often but I gladly admit that after every episode I’m left surprised by the clarity and skill with which these small history lessons are created and delivered. Supremely awesome.
Excelsior!
Ikr! Even the clever intros. Like the one in this video. It’s just pure quality, funny and interesting. Amazing channel!
It's actually a pretty big history lesson overall.
Most documentaries are 1-3 hours long, and cover the entire war.
This is roughly 15-25 minutes for each individual week.
Thank you MementoMoree for your kind words. And you win username of the day.
I have a cool story from a US WW2 bomber man in my neighborhood. He was in the lead bomber of a formation, and they got pounded by flak. One of the guys had luckily moved from that spot just moments before. Their hydraulics were busted and they couldn't land. The formation went higher in elevation and avoided the flak. This neighbor of mine went on the outside of the bomber to fix the hydraulics. They would have to lower in elevation so he could breathe. He fixed it and they were able to make it back and land just fine.
That is quite amazing. Sounds like a very interesting neighbor to have.
What a madlad. Respect.
Amazing. If he is still alive and capable try to record his story. When I was young we had a priest who lived in our area who survived the Bataan Death March. One of our religion classes was having him tell his story to us kids when we were only 11 or 12 years old. I think listening to him spurred my lifelong intreast in WWII history.
Given how many times Kharkiv/Kharkov has been invaded and seized in World War I, the Russian Civil War, World War II, and now the Russo-Ukrainian War, it might be the most fought-over city in the past 120 years.
Second to Palermo
@@johanlaidoner122 The Isonzo is a River, not a city.
@@johanlaidoner122 Nate’s comment was that Kharkiv was perhaps the most fought-over CITY, not the most fought over spot.
@@primevaltimes Paris in WW1 ?
@@primevaltimes maybe Richmond in the civil war too lol
It could be argued this week marked a turning point in the war: that last clip of the Germans launching what is in essence an air-to-surface cruise missile is that point in history where the current war changes from using technology that came out of the previous war (WWI) and starts using technology that will mark future wars.
4:27 it just says MAP, maybe a placeholder which went unnoticed?
Nah that entire region is just the MAP. We all know this.
We'll be updating the file soon, we just didn't want to delay the episode for such a small detail
I am continually amazed by the quality of these, amazing work!
Thank you Smudge, very glad you're enjoying them! If you haven't yet, please join the TimeGhost Army today to help us make more episodes like these! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory
@@WorldWarTwo Way ahead of ya! Been a proud member since 2019 and have no plans of stopping. Keep up all the amazing work you folks do!
Oh I love this channel! The eloquence of the speakers, and how dapper they are. Beautiful channel. Thank You ❤️
We love you too Viktor! Thanks for helping make our community here beautiful ❤️❤️❤️
Where is episode # 210? Should be visible by now?
Once again, well done team !
Thanks Inspector!
U-Boat Hunt in Mediterranean , Bay of Biscay and Atlantic
On the night of August 22, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Easton and the Greek destroyer Pindos (ex-HMS Bolebroke), escorting convoy MKF 22 off Sicily, found German submarine U-458 , commanded by Kurt Diggins, age twenty-nine, by passive hydrophone near the island of Pantelleria. The warships blew U-458 to the surface with thirty depth charges and hit her with gunfire, then HMS Easton rammed and sank U-458. Twelve Germans were killed in this action; the warships fished out thirty-nine of the U-458 crew, including Diggins.
Two U-boats that had sailed on August 1 from Bordeux but returned to France, resailed in company to American waters on August 16. These were the famous old Drumbeat boat, the Type IXB submarine U-123, and Type IXC submarine U-523, commanded by Horst von Schroeter and Werner Pietzsch, respectively.
In the dark early hours of the seventh day out, August 22, a Leigh Light-equipped Wellington bomber of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 179 caught and bombed U-523 while leaving Bay of Biscay. Pietzsch dived and escaped, but the Wellington’s report alerted surface ships passing in the vicinity, including Royal Navy close escort of a convoy en route from the British Isles to Gibraltar. Unaware of the proximity of enemy surface ships, on the night of August 24-25 Pietzsch ran on the surface off Vigo , Spain. Royal Navy destroyer HMS Wanderer and the corvette HMS Wallflower of the convoy escort got U-523 on radar and caught her by complete surprise. Shaken, Pietzsch dived to elude, but HMS Wanderer, commanded by Reginald F. (Bob) Whinney, immediately found the boat on sonar and commenced a dogged depth-charge attack, which HMS Wallflower soon joined. Pietzsch went so deep (to 880 feet, some crewmen asserted) that the hull “groaned” and the interior wood trim “splintered” from the immense sea pressure. Finally Pietzsch gave up and surfaced to scuttle, taking gunfire from both warships that fatally damaged U-523. That fire killed about a dozen Germans before they could jump from the sinking U-boat. The destroyers HMS Wanderer and HMS Hurricane, the corvette HMS Wallflower, and the convoy rescue ship Zamalek fished thirty-seven Germans from the water, including Pietzsch.
Near Cape Finisterre, Allied surface ships also found and depth-charged von Schroeter in U-123 but he got away. Control assigned the boat to patrol the Trinidad area, but later modified the orders to include the “bauxite route” farther south, if von Schroeter chose to go there. He did and on September 21, he found and attacked a convoy of tankers and Liberty ships off French Guiana that had a powerful sea and air escort. He claimed two definite hits and three maybes, but these have not been confirmed in Allied records.
Another Type VII U-Boat returning from American waters, the U-134, commanded by Hans-Günther Brosin, who had shot down a blimp in the Florida Straits, also ran into fatal trouble. On August 21, a Wildcat-Avenger team from US Navy “jeep” carrier USS Croatan, escorting convoy UGS 14, attacked U-134 but Brosin escaped. Three nights later, on August 24, a Leigh Light-equipped Wellington bomber of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 179, piloted by a Canadian, Donald F. McRae, found and attacked U-134 in the face of heavy flak at Bay of Biscay. McRae dropped six depth charges that destroyed U-134 with all hands.
The loss of U-tankers also led to the deletion of a Type IXD2 U-cruiser from group Monsun, the new foray to the Indian Ocean. This was the U-847, commanded by Ritterkreuz holder Herbert Kuppisch, who sailed from Kiel on July 6, struck ice in the Denmark Strait, and aborted to Norway, arriving on July 20. After repairs, Kuppisch resailed on July 29, but Control reassigned him to serve as a provisional tanker for the boats returning from the Americas and West Africa. Kuppisch reached his refueling area in mid-August. His first task was to replenish some inbound boats from the Americas that had been assigned to refuel from the XB minelayer U-117, herself a provisional tanker that, as related, was sunk on August 7.
On the morning of August 27, Kuppisch in Type IXC40 U-tanker U-847 refueled six more homebound boats. These were Paul Siegmann in Type VII U-230, returning from a mine-laying mission off Norfolk; Kurt Neide in Type VII U-415, returning from a barren patrol in the Trinidad area; Eberhard Dahlhaus in Type VII U-634, returning from a fruitless patrol in the Caribbean; Gerhard Feiler in Type VII U-653, also returning from a luckless patrol in the Caribbean; Heinz Rahe in Type VII submarine U-257, returning from a barren patrol to the Freetown area; and the new Ritterkreuz winner Georg Staats in Type IXC submarine U-508, returning from the Freetown and Gulf of Guinea areas. Like Emmermann in U-172, the first watch officer on U-230, Herbert Werner, believed that Kuppisch was insufficiently prepared to cope with enemy air.
Several days later, US Navy “jeep” carrier USS Card relieved the “jeep” carrier USS Core, which had developed turbine-vibration problems. On the morning of August 27, two Wildcat fighterss and an Avenger dive bomber from USS Card found Kuppisch in U-847 in mid Atlantic. The two Wildcat fighters, piloted by Jack H. Stewart and Frederick M. Rountree, strafed and forced the boat to dive. Pilot Ralph W. Long in the Avenger bomber dropped a Fido acoustic homing torpedo just ahead of the swirl that hit and sank her target. Nothing further was ever heard from U-847. She was the sixth IXD2 U-cruiser to be lost, the fifth within the 104-day period from May 16 to August 27.
Hitler's U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr.
It is really interesting to see how they themselves thought of the war as not something without the final that it does. We think of things like Italy being invaded as obvious, as opposed to a large plan to invade through the Balkans like they did in WW1 which ultimately crippled the Central Powers. They thought the war could last a lot longer than it did in our timeline, people putting plans for 1947 making the war a decade long, or that it could come through completely different fronts. Seeing the war from this perspective is really something our way of thinking with the hindsight that we do doesn´t offer. They didn´t even know for sure how the world was going to operate with the Cold War split or that Germany was going to be divided and if so into how many ways. Poland still looked like it had about half of Belarus on maps that didn´t acknowledge the German and Soviet attack, or that Germany still had Silesia and Köningsberg even before the war. Fascinating!
The BRD (US occupied Germany) did not recognize Poland for most of the cold war. We had german Altas at home, with eastern Prussia from 1970! It was just mentioned in brackets, that this part of Germany is "momentarily under polnish administration". Must have been a strange world for polish people at that time. On one side the soviet union and on the other side, still the same old Nazis, but now with US support...
@@Casa-de-hongos Dutch atlases also had, at the time, the old 1939 border still present with a faint line, and the old German names of towns and cities listed cursively underneath the Polish names. The reasoning being that until there was a definitive peace treaty the old situation kinda still exists. Which is why our Atlases also still show Israel's borders at the 1967 border and the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights as occupied, awaiting a final legal settlement. And the West-German state wasn't the same old Nazi's, although there were a lot still present, just like in the former East-Germany, which was for all intents and purposes the old Nazi state under new management.
Logically they had no way of knowing when the war would end. Only a fool would assume in 1943 to have known the outcome of the war when it did. And plan accordingly. You can do that but what if that date arrives......, and it goes on. And now you are out of supplies and troops because you had not planned beyond that? So they had to plan for a war that lasted for a lot longer so more then enough men and supplies were in the pipeline if needed.
@@Casa-de-hongos The USSR used this to keep Poland at their side as the Soviet Union was the only entity to be able to protect Poland from having its land taken Away
1947 would have save so many lives, by then Nazi Germany or before that would have been faced with the atomic bomb. 😃😃😃😃😃
Thanks!
Thanks to you to ❤️
I have finally caught up! Thank you very much for this excelent Journey far. I will be watching closely for the next few years
Thank you Plutonium! That's quite a lot of episodes you watched, and we really can't thank you enough for catching up and watching the whole war with us.
I hope you'll stay tuned every week from now until whenever this terrible war ends!
So excited for this episode since I just finished running through this mission in Sudden Strike 4
Thanks for being here Cody, how'd it live up to the mission?
@@WorldWarTwo Hey, episode was great as always, I actually found this channel from Sabaton History. So thank you for making such entertaining historical content.
Very glad you found us! And Sabton rocks!! 🤘
@@WorldWarTwo Agreed.
Great video. I find most documentaries or videos on the eastern front never talk much about the period between the end of Kursk and Bagration.
"Messina is the same distance to Berlin as the Russians." Is it though? It makes you wonder if the Allied leadership had topographic maps. There are A LOT of mountains going that route to Berlin.
After the war one of the German Generals, (it may have been "Smiling" Albert Kesselring) gave the allies a piece of advice." Next time you want to invade Italy don't start at the bottom..." He was right. All those mountain ranges, valleys and rivers turned it into a grinding slog.
Also they make for EXCELLENT defensive positions. As the Allies found out all too well.
At that time probably a lot more Germans on the other route though
@@snapdragon6601 Thing is, he was a dick and a war criminal. Who tried to make himself useful to the Americans after the war to avoid getting hanged as he should have for his war crimes. His word kinda suspect. In the real world military operations are determined by logistics, the one thing the Germans were clueless about. The invasion of Salerno really was the furthest place north the Allies could invade the Italian mainland, using cover from airbases in Sicily. Any invasion up north would involve taking Sardinia and Corsica first. Which would clue the Germans as to what would happen next. And even supported from Corsica an invasion into Genua or Tuscany still means you have to cross the Appenine mountains. The best place to invade Italy and avoid the Appenines would be at Venice. But that means you have to sail up the Adriatic and run the gauntlet of German occupied Italy and Yugoslavia. So in 1943, Salerno really was the only option. Probably why the Germans maintained enough forces there to almost kick Mark Clark back into the sea.
Yeah, landing on the southern tip of Italy was a stupid decision on the Allied side. Sicily okay, but then they should have landed in Central Italy at least after Italys surrender. Would have propably shortened the war by a year
This episode was amazing thank you so much
Than you, very glad you enjoyed it
Hi Indy
Another exciting week.
At this stage of war,
It looks like war changing and going towards end.
But on another hand it looks like it will prolong for another two years.
Seems like more bloody war ahead.
Thanks for another wonderful episode.
Thank you for watching every week. Very glad seeing so familiar names as we move through this war together. Cheers
@@WorldWarTwo
Thanks to you.
Its been routine for me i couldn't miss single episode of world war two beacuse of your content and love for history.
I'm excited to see the start of the cold war and the Korean war coverage from you guys. Do you have any plans to cover the Korean war after this?
Indy said he would like to do Korean War. For the Cold War it's over 40 years so maybe they could cover a year in a episode.
Let's finish what we have on our plate right now. Lots more war to cover
There's already a cold war channel right?
Somewhat related to that topic is the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Korea and the Northern islands of Japan. There seems to be a scarcity of detail of this theater.
@@ggtt6122 Yes, there is.
I do believe I forgot to comment when I watched this episode this morning. Ouch. 😱 Somehow, the memory of forgetting just came to me. Hehe.
Every time I hear about Kharkov on this channel, I think of the modern war going on today.
Thanks for coming back and getting the comment in @Hannah Skipper!
The Italian armour spectacularly charged the Americans on Sicily felton does a good video on it.
Dr. Mark Felton has a great channel. I watch it too..The videos almost always cover something that I never knew about. 🙂👍
@@snapdragon6601 explains why the Italian left with no armour doesn't it. Lol
@@adanjobek1915 Yeah, the Italian Armored Death Ride was a good one...The Death Ride of the Luftwaffe: Operation Bodenplatte was a good one too. 🙂
Kharkov. Still in he news today. Man, this guy does a damn good review of historical events.
_Comrades, today you have achieved great glory! Because of your courage and strength, the German army has been driven back and the city of Kharkov is once again ours! From this day forward we shall not take another step back until this war is won! Fight on!_ - Commissar
11:05 This week on August 22 1943, the twelfth and thirteenth mission of the 2004 video game *Call of Duty: United Offensive* , the *Kharkov 1 & 2 levels* under *Private Yuri Petrenko* begins at Kharkov in the Soviet Union. In both missions, you will engage in urban combat against German positions in the city as part of the Fourth Battle of Kharkov. The train station section in particular is somewhat notorious for being very difficult to complete at Veteran difficulty.
Even more to come!
Another great one. Thanks Indy!
Thank you Alex!
Just saying... One of the best-offs regular episode in the series. Cheers Indy, Sparty & team!
Indy wow, your cadences and diction are amazing in this one.
Thanks for watching, Tomasina
"Soviet steamroller on beast mode"
Hearing "beast mode" on a serious history documentary made me chuckle
Hope you guys present a good coverage of Battle of Denipr, which was the actual climax of the eastern front, yet most people only know Babarosa, Stalingrad, Berlin etc.
No, operation Bagration was the climax of the Eastern Front. The casualties on the German side and the amount of territory taken was far greater during operation Bagration
@@tylerclayton6081 nope, Bagration was not so much of a battle than steamrolling, as most panzers of AG Center were stripped to reinforce AG South
@@tylerclayton6081 Nah Smolensk and Dneiper were decisive . Bagration was unimpressive. Smolensk was an offensive of 1.2 million vs 800,00 germans . The Germans tied down 40% of their strength and 55 divisions. The offensive was also one against actual opposition while Bagration was a cake Walk . The German defenses at smolensk were very well prepared and soviet forces were underequipped while Bagration saw massive soviet superiority in everything. Dneiper and Smolensk was a display of true quality.
soviet forces actually broke a defensive line in those battles which was the Panther Wotan line . They also had to cross rivers with their garbage naval forces and hold back counterattack.
Suorov
This plan was enormous both in regard of its daring and of forces committed to it, was executed through several operations: the Smolensk operation, ...the Donbass Operation, the left-bank Ukraine operation..
The videos about Sicily but there wasn't any mention of air drop Patton ordered (I think it was in early August). It was one of the worst in the war, something like half of the paratrooper were killed from friendly fire. Rick Atkinson had a story in The Day of Battle of a major who survived the drop was running around ordering every tank crew he could find to stop shooting.
boy this Douglas guy is a piece of work.
This was an excellent video. Very nicely done. Have a nice day or night wherever you are.
All my life I never thought I’d hear Indie say the words “beast mode”
What a timeline
Telephone dude/dudette should co-host with Indy. Can't wait to see them.
As always, very well done and very informative.
Thank you Mark
Just 18 months ago the evil seemed infallible. Quite amazed at how times change.
Love the show as always, however the video title has the wrong date, August 28 instead of 27. Just wanted to point that out before the main release and a hundred other people notice and comment. Anyway, love you all, keep up the great work!
Thanks Nick!
Gotta love how Conrad is still featured in the background
Just Hötzendorfin' around
Field Marshal Kliest has the remnants of Army Group A ,sequestered and in the Kuban Pocket with only the 17th Army ? I guess its a group much as a Battle detachment bigger than a bread box ,smaller than a pantry?. I heard through research that Army Group A( or Kuban ?) had upwards to 700,000 soldiers in 1943. I guess the 13th Panzer wasn't being of any help there,in a defeensive capacity ,and with the loss of 2,000 or more tanks since Kursk ,it couldn't hide down in the Kuban for too much longer !. The great movie by Samuel Penkinpah ,the ""Iron Cross '' with Mason,Coburn,the great Maximilian Schell was depicting the Kuban Front in the film, reports or rumours that there was a followup to the first, though I believe Sam didn't do another one ! A great novel also. Kliest did a excellent performance causing 5 times to his 1 ,in the Pocket,
Thank you for the recommendations
There was a sort of sequel, with another director and starring Richard Burton. A bit of a damp squib by all accounts.
Great video again
Thank you Elveheim
Best birthday present is having a new episode
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACHARY!!! Thank you for making us part of it, and I hope you have a lovely day!
I feel like the camera work on this episode was a bit different. Do you have a new director on staff? Whatever you did, I liked it.
I've been waiting for this ep for a while. Merrill's Marauders, enter stage left.
Very glad to have you with us for it
A small point. Mountbatten's first name Louis is pronounced loo-ee in the French way.
Or as the Imperial General Staff pronounced it: "idiot".
But the host isn't French, isn't speaking French, and the name Louis has been anglicized.
So it is proper for a native English speaker who's speaking English to pronounce it with the "s" not silent.
@@lordgarion514 You miss the point. In British English the final "s" in that first name is definitely silent, distinguishing it from "Lewis". That is how Mountbatten pronounced it. American English is different, sure, but Indie tries to pronounce names and places as much as possible with the LOCAL pronunciation.
Top notch content as usual.
Thanks, AshlandMan
👍Lot of detail this week.
Thanks for watching, Ted
Who else is freaking out because the new episode hasnt been posted yet?
German General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin (4 September 1891 - 9 January 1963) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Germany during World War II. After the war he was introduced by Britain's Sir B. H. Liddell Hart to the military historian Michael Howard. Howard, who had fought in Italy during the war, recalls him saying, "May I give you a word of advice? Next time you invade Italy, do not start at the bottom."
Lidell Hart should have replied : "Invent a time machine and give us long range fighters and medium tactical bombers to cover any bridgehead from air back then"
@@merdiolu I would have said something like, "If you invade somewhere like Russia, get the logistics right first."
I think the Allies were a little too cautious but it was not that long ago that the Germans seemed invincible.
SPOILER
Next year Von Senger will make sure he is photographed helping the Italian abbot of Monte Cassino get into a German staff car while escaping the destruction of his monastery by Allied bombers.
My uncle William St John ran aviation fuel into Trieste. He said they were under radio silence and ships were not clearly marked. He said everyone was! shooting at them! He survived as a Canadian Naval Officer and repaired TV's, radio's, and other electronics in Ottawa running from his house.
Thank you for sharing about your uncle, that must have been an incredible life he lived.
As long as the Soviet steamroller is still in beast mode- greatest line of the year?
Excellent effort.
Thank you Simon
When I see these titanic battles on the eastern front, I wonder: what is the true figure for Soviet and German losses? I've read that the USSR lost 8.6 million military personnel and almost 20 million civilians, but I've read about 10 to 13 million military personnel. I don't think we'll ever really know.
And Germany and its allies were over 5 million. It's almost surreal to think about the level of violence on this front. It almost makes the western front a picnic.
The Brutality of the Pacific/Asian and Eastern Front is unmatched. Some consider the Japanese especially Unit 731 worse than Germany.
There are- according to a few Russian historians- apparently secret 1946 USSR census figures that show 22 million military and 20 million civilian dead.
@@JohnJohn-pe5kr Band of Brothers vs The Pacific portrays this well. The Germans were definitely hated by the allies troops in France but it never reached levels of what you read in Eugene Sledges book.Japanese soldiers disebowled and cut the genitals off and cut off tattoos of dead Americans and likewise American soldiers didn't take prisoners usually (for fear of suicides). Some would collect the gold teeth off Japanese soldiers and others collected skulls. The Pacific was absolutely brutal.
That is true... to an extent. The Germans did lose quite a number of men in the west, too, but these were as POWs. When that is factored in, the western front gets a huge boost in the ratio. The eastern front was undoubtedly bigger and more important, but the western front should not be underestimated in the damage it caused to the Germans.
@@tesnacloud It was a team effort by UK, USA, and USSR. UK brains (science and intelligence breakthroughs), USA brawn (industrial production was ~1/3 output total of all combatants), and Russian blood (death toll >20,000,000). Anglo/American bombing raids pulled German fighters from the Russian front in the second half of 1943. The Western front was regarded as flies to be swatted away while the war of annihilation in the East was the priority, right down to commandeered supply trains by to feed the death camps.
You know , when you check the Axis casaulties in Sicily it is really interesting how popular history narrative of WWII in West was written especially biased to the favour of German military or German army commanders/operations (since after same German generals were employed in West Germany under NATO they gave first hand resources which put themselves under favorable light and shaped the Western military tactical and operational doctrine according to their perspective afterwards) In Sicily , Germans lost %80 of their panzers and almost halft of their artillery , left behind back in Sicily along with %20 of their troops killed and captured hors de combat permenantly. I mean can you imagine if any Allied operation after 1942-43 winter era , resulted %80 of tanks lost ? In post war critism of popular historians , those Allied generals involved , would be torn apart mercilessly.
Instead Allied post war writers over praise German evacuation from a mere three mile water barrier in Strait of Messina (almost like a river crossing width) that was extremely well defended by anti aircraft fire and shore batteries/mines but downplay the difficulties of Allied armies race to Messina over a mountain terrain that was easy to defend and suitable to delaying rearguard action. There is an emphasis on Western history summary that over emphasize Allied failures , missed oppourtunities , "what might have beens" with decades of hindsight that never takes the conditions , limitations , inexperience of Allied armies (still learning their trade) and predictions / priorties of Allies commanders and decision makers into account but overpraise German military too much.
@@spiz555s3 Also because post-war, Allied propaganda also made the Germans out to be better equipped than they actually were. For instance when people think of the bunkers, they don't realize most were just standard pillboxes. The gigantic bunkers like in Saving Private Ryan were few and far between, Tigers were far less numerous and reliable than what is shown in media, etc...
Also a lot of German military leaders wrote their books while being employed by allied militaries, directly or not, because they had the most experience of fighting soviet union. so praising German army and, thus, themselves, was a good thing for their personal careers and/or restoration of western German millitary
Even more impressive from the Allied side is when you consider that the Axis powers had the advantage of defending when fighting for Sicily.
Historians also seem to ignore that it didn't matter where the Allies landed on Sicily, they would have faced the same problem - getting around Mount Etna to reach Messina. I think the Allies did the right thing by landing on adjacent invasion areas and linking up. It enabled them to shift forces back and forth to meet various Axis threats, and avoided the possibility of defeat in detail.
@@Darkdaej On that note, I would also recommend researching about how little MP40 (German automatic infantry weapons) were actually produced. A huge majority of the German army only had old Kar98Ks, which weren't bad, but really weren't any better than Allied smal arms. Turns out MP40s were incredibly rare, only elite units carried that, while in all movies and video games you can see 90% of the Germans having MP40s. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know that I was surprised when I found out just how rare they really were.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!
Thank you Oliver! Stay tuned, much more to come
@@WorldWarTwo sounds great 👍
Love the intros of this series, each episode really makes my day, keep up the amazing content
Thank you, RubberToe. We appreciate you making us part of your day, so stay tuned
Hello there! Great show! I was wondering, since the Campaign in Sicily is pretty much over, can you do a special about the Allies management (or mismanagement to be more precise) of the collaboration with the Mafia and the consequences it had on Italy in the future? Considering that under Mussolini the criminal organisation kept a low profile and after the arrival of the Allies they came back to buisness as powerful as they never had been.
As an Italian, I am deeply curious about it.
Tour de berlin! Not betting on the 7th panzers to win this time around.
1:45 Claude Auchinleck looks like you Indy
Todays' intro was definietly a better one. If I ever wanted ti introduce someone else to this series I would show them this one as an examaple of high quality intro. Just a random thought that I had while watching.
Thank you, please do show it to your friends!!
In 1943 German AFV production was 11,601 and it's total plane production was 20,599, fighter production was around 8,000.
Soviet production was 34,900 aircraft, 24,089 tanks and self propelled guns and 48,400 artillery in 1943. My source says Germany produced 24,807 aircraft, 17,300 tanks and self propelled artillery, and 27,000 artillery in 1943
@@caryblack5985 During this period the Germans were producing about 1 STUG (self-propelled gun) for every tank, so about 12,000 STUGs sounds about right. Is a STUG an AFV? Your guess is as good as mine.
7:04 - the photo is odd as there seem to be some Allied soldiers. At least one man seems to be wearing a Brodie helmet. Were the Germans transporting POWs to mainland Italy to prevent them being liberated if they remained in Sicily?
It's weird to think that in little over a year you'll be discussing operation Market Garden which seems to be so close to the end of the war, yet at the same time you still have so much of the war to cover.
Stay with us through it all, my Ninja friend
3:24 I didn't know Steve Carell played someone in World War 2.
This week in French politics.
On the 24th of August, the Law on Craftsmanship is signed in Vichy. It is however never applicated because no decree were enacted. The project was a regional corporatism for each profession or community of workers. Because there is no Assembly, this law, as all the laws passed during Vichy time, goes only through the Council of Ministers and Petain because as of July 1940, they are the only legitimate legislative power in fonction (The Assemblies are still legaly there but are indefinitely deferred). (More information about some other corporatist laws passed by Vichy, in response to this comment)
The 26th, the CFLN is officially recognized as a government by the USSR, the United-Kingdom and the United States, the latter made a dubious proclamation on what exactly this government is, in order to leverage the possible “occupation” of France in 1944 (the CFLN would be the same as the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories, AMGOT, in Italy). For the next few months, 37 countries will follow them (with China for example).
The 27th, Albert Lebrun, former president of France, under surveillance in Vizille by Italians who previously told him to escape, but Lebrun refused, and André François-Poncet, ex-ambassador in Berlin and then in Rome, are arrested by the Gestapo with the help of Klaus Barbie, on order of Hitler when Italians withdraw from France. They are sent to the Castle of Itter, with other French personalities.
So, about the laws on corporatism. It is part of the Revolution National, the unorganized and unprepared reactionary political program of Vichy France. The law that was passed the 24th is the same principle two laws : The Peasant Corporation law of 1940: by 1943, this one is a half failure, in some department there is a lot of municipal corporations, however there is little “return to the land” from urban population, and some of these corporations are empty shells, worse some are fronts for clandestine unions militating against Vichy’s policy as the “Confédération générale de l'agriculture” (a socialist union). Most of the critics from the right and far-right, which both advocates some level of corporatism, tell that the Corporation paysanne is “unnational” and serve the occupier, which is de facto true.
The second one is the “Charte du travail” of the 4th of October 1941, a law on labor, a synthesis of a lots of influences: syndicalism, the Italian fascism Carta del Lavoro of 1927, social-Catholicism, anti-Enlightenment of Mauras (corporatist, antiliberal), the Portuguese model of association between workers and employers and the French employers’ unions’ demands. The main line was to end the class struggle, the alliance and negotiation of employees and employers, and a peaceful social order well organized, based on collaboration and on differentiation between professions. This law makes at several level (companies, municipals, departments, and regions) the “professional families” in line with the corporatism view, with unique and mandatory unions inside a social committee. Strikes and lock-out are outlaw. A minimal salary is instituted and fixed by the State (never put in place by 1944). This law of compromise is unclear, meant to be elucidate in application decrees that will never be enacted. The reality is that this new organization is a failure, some professional families were organized but the majority never happened. Unique unions are a total failure too and social committees didn’t make any real measures because of the war troubles and the impossible of real equal collaboration between employer and employee.
Merci Lematth!
Rather a lot going on with this tie, but easy to miss due to subdued colours. Pretty cool. 3.5/5
It is now down to grinding it out. Sounds like a lot of the big decisions have been deferred.
@12:35 What is the purple on the map?
Lakes
Right, lakes on the shoreline of the Black Sea.
!😂😂😂
@ToughAncientSpark I will see if we can get a definitive answer from our map team but I highly suspect that they are areas of floodplains/marshes and lakes which have been turned purple due to our colouring of the map. Take a look at the map at 12:42 and compare one side of the front line in the Kuban to the other
Did some fact finding research.
They are indeed lakes, artificial lakes, used to mine salt. That's why some of those lakes are right on the sea separated by causeways.
Apparently, Ukraine is famous for it's pink salt.
Still doesn't explain why the map maker chose purple color to delineate them on the map.
That German radio guided bomb had its first test with disappointing results though that is disputed below I note. I will sum up its most impressive upcoming success by saying "Arrivaderchee (sorry about my Italian) Roma, goodbye goodbye goodbye". The technological war was such an important part of eventual victory and in this case, the Allies quickly worked out ways to deal with this wonder weapon of the Nazis.
Are you referencing the sinking of the Italian battleship Roma?
@@Ramzi1944 I sure am! It was heading for Malta to surrender but when the Germans worked that out a bomber hit it with 2 of these FX (?) bombs. There was a massive internal explosion and then the Roma, a beautiful looking battleship, went down very quickly taking the admiral and much of the crew with it. One of these bombs also hit the American cruiser, Savanah, I think, badly damaging it during the landings at Salerno but successes were thin on the sea after that.
@@aleksazunjic9672 What you say is not correct. Almost immediately, the Allies had a jammer in operation but it was only partially successful. Almost 200 sailors died on Savannah at Salerno. The light cruiser Uganda was also hit along with HMS Warspite. By the time of the landing at Anzio, the Allies had an improved Type 650 jammer which proved quite successful against the Fritz-X. At the Normandy Landing, the combination of Allied air superiority and ship mounted jammers removed the threat. A Norwegian destroyer Svenner was the only ship at Normandy that may have been hit by a Fritz-X.
@@aleksazunjic9672 On further reading I discover that even Svenner was probably not hit by Fritz-X. Fritz-X had been credited with the loss of hospital ship Newfoundland at Salerno and destroyer HMS Janus and lightcruiser HMS Spartan at Anzio. However, these ships were hit by Hs 293's as shown by the nature of the damage and witness reports. As for you, your last sentence shows exactly what your agenda is.
As soon as I graduate school, I will join the TG army!
Good luck in school and we'll be lucky to have you whenever you can join!
After the Quebec conference Roosevelt visits Ottawa on the 25th. For security reasons the visit is only announced a few hours in advance. Roosevelt's personal train arrives at the Nicholas street platform and he makes the short trip to Parliament Hill by limousine. There he makes a speech in front of many dignitaries and crowd of over 30,000 Ottawa residents. Close to 200 reporters are there to cover the event. He speaks about the recent victories in Sicily and Kiska to which Canadian troops had taken part and of the discussion with Canada and Britain at the recent conference, likening it to meeting with members of the same family. He also likens the Axis powers to a "band of gangsters". After the speech an aide lays a wreath at the war memorial while Roosevelt looks on and the RCMP band plays the hymn Abide With Me. He and the PM, Mackenzie King, lunch with the Governor General at Rideau Hall. From there they visit Kingsmere, King's estate in the Gatineau Hills north of the city. They end the day with a private meeting at King's residence, Laurier House.
I didn't know fdr spoke Canadian. Or was there a translator?
Unrelated to the war, but very related to Churchill, on 24 August, John Christie, a War Reserve Policeman, starts a second job - as a serial killer. He is eventually caught in the 1950s and hanged for his crimes, but not before getting Timothy Evans sent to the gallows in his stead (for murders of his wife and baby daughter no less).
(spoilers)
The Churchill connection comes from his government launching an inquiry into the Timothy Evans case after Christie was caught - it seemed rather coincidential that both Evans *and* Christie both killed people in the same way in the same house and buried their victims in the same backyard (Christie also found/made an alcove in the walls of the house, where more bodies were found) without knowing of each other. However, that's exactly what the inquiry found. A second inquiry in the 1960s absolved him of killing his daughter, which seems strange since she was buried alongside his wife. This case became a major focal point in the later abolition of the death penalty in the UK
Christie murdered at least two women while a reserve policeman. He actually used the thigh bone of one to prop up a fence in the back yard - a good example of hiding in plain sight. He may have murdered others - wartime was a good setting for making people disappear.
You're telling me the alcoves are a good place in which to kill someone?
@@WorldWarTwo He used them for storage. He moved out rather suddenly and the next tenant decided to do some redecorating. He pulled down wallpaper in the alcove and made some shocking discoveries.
I find myself when I'm teaching my high school economics classes, I find myself saying "however" and "see you next time". Do I owe Indy some royalties?
You do owe royalties - Payable through keeping up your good work educating young minds.
Please do stay tuned, and thanks for doing the difficult work of being a teacher.
Operation Husky proved a resounding success. The Allies landed on the southern and south-eastern coasts of Sicily on 10 July 1943 and within a month the Germans and their lacklustre Italian allies had been driven back to Messina, in the north-eastern tip of the island. The Germans then evacuated the island, pulling over 80,000 German and Italian troops to safety. Finally on 16 August Messina was captured, and the campaign brought to an end. However, the fighting didn’t stop there. In May Churchill had persuaded Roosevelt that Eisenhower should try to knock Italy out of the war, as a continuation of Husky. Inevitably this meant an invasion of the Italian mainland. While the fighting was raging in Sicily, Eisenhower’s staff was busy drawing up plans for this next stage of the conflict.
During the next few weeks several schemes were developed, all involving landings either around Naples and Rome, or else on the southern coast of Italy. The more northerly invasion sites offered the most substantial strategic rewards if the landings succeeded, but conversely they also involved the greatest risk. By contrast, a landing on the southern coast was virtually risk-free, but the strategic advantages were minor. While a landing around Rome was discounted early on because the beaches lay beyond the reach of Allied air cover, other invasion plans were developed that gave Eisenhower a range of options. Operations Barracuda, Gangway and Mustang all involved landings in the Bay of Naples. However, these were eventually considered to be too risky, as the Germans would be able to reinforce the battlefield far more rapidly than the Allies could, while the beaches lay too far from the airfields in Sicily to permit all but the most minimal air cover for the operation. A far safer option was Operation Slapstick, which involved the landing of General Clark’s Fifth Army at Taranto, supported by a drop by the US 82nd Airborne Division. This too was discarded, as the whole operation was considered too cautious. For the same reason Operation Goblet, a landing by General Montgomery’s Eighth Army at Crotone in Calabria was also abandoned, as was Operation Buttress, the landing of Fifth Army’s 10th (British) Corps in the same area.
Next came the drafting of plans for an independent parachute drop by the 82nd, either around Naples (Operation Giant I), or around Rome (Operation Giant II). Both were designed to block the flow of German reinforcements to the main landing area to the south, but both operations were rightly considered too perilous. In the end these plans were adapted by the Airborne commander when General Clark asked the 82nd to carry out a drop in support of the Salerno landings. By the end of August it was clear that although the Germans still held southern Italy, their troops were in poor shape, and the Wehrmacht needed time to replenish the men and equipment lost during the Sicilian campaign. The normally cautious Montgomery urged an immediate landing in Calabria to take advantage of this - to establish a foothold on the Italian ‘toe’ before the enemy could recover. His aggressiveness was encouraged by the favourable political situation in Italy. After a string of military disasters the Italian leadership was anxious to make peace with the Allies. A new government was formed under the leadership of Marshal Badoglio, who promptly entered secret negotiations with the Allies.
Meanwhile Eisenhower and General Alexander, commanding 15th Army Group, decided to launch a two-pronged invasion. The first element involved the landing of Montgomery’s Eighth Army in Calabria and Apulia: the British commander would then push the Germans back as his men advanced northwards. Meanwhile Clark’s Fifth Army would land further up the western coast of Italy, in a bid to secure the vital port of Naples. By the time the two armies met, the Allies would have secured the whole of Southern Italy, and would be able to use Naples as a supply base and conduit for reinforcements.
Salerno 1943 - Angus Konstam
Every time Indy says Kharkov, I hear Krakow (Polish for Cracow) :)
The great and last FOURTH battle of Kharkov! Only ever mentioned in Paul Carrell's book "Scorched Earth"! A great but unknown tank battle after Kursk Where Rotmistrov lost almost 400 tanks attempting to capture the city and the Germans were forced to abandon Kharkov for the fourth and final time!
It is mentioned in great detail in Prit Buttar Retribution The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine 1943 published 2019
The losses of the army of Rotmistrov are 20 days of fighting and 100 km - 324 tanks.
Very cool episode
With Anzio on the horizon the war in the med is not even close... yet...
The bad thing about these vids is that they only last 20 minutes. In these days where television is no longer relevant we need more ... ever more...
Awesome as always 😀😀😀
Thanks @Jason Mussett
11:16 "Long live the wartime alliance of the nations of USSR, England [UK] and USA!"
Well how nice of them, wonder how long will this last.
Yes, I wonder if there were any Scots, Welsh or Irish around when he said that. They would not have been impressed.
Sounds like people living in Kharkov have been through enough, hope that city stays perfectly safe forever after this war.
Oof
I do not know which ship it was exactly but a Royal Navy vessel managed to disrupt the radio signals to the guided bomb by having as much crew as possible wave their elektric razors around causing the missle to miss.
Seriously? How did they know it's radio guided bomb?
That...has the smell of bulls.hit..... (sorry)
@@todiathink8864 it's not true, however, after the initial attacks in August 1943 the British went to considerable effort to develop jamming devices. These were first deployed in late September 1943, too late for Salerno. The system met with some success, though it proved cumbersome and easily overwhelmed if large numbers of weapons were deployed simultaneously
@@darkorodic638 because they'd have intelligence on the weapon. There would been radio traffic they would have picked up everytime it was fired as well.
After the initial attacks in August 1943 the British went to considerable effort to develop jamming devices. These were first deployed in late September 1943, too late for Salerno. The system met with some success, though it proved cumbersome and easily overwhelmed if large numbers of weapons were deployed simultaneously
Then in early 1944, the UK began to deploy its Type 650 transmitter which employed a different approach to interfering with the FuG 203/230 radio link on a Fritz X, by jamming the Straßburg receiver's intermediate frequency (IF) section. The FuG 230 receiver's IF section operated at a 3 MHz frequency and the Type 650 appears to have been quite successful in interfering with Fritz X ordnance deployments, especially because the operator did not have to attempt to find which of the eighteen selected Kehl-Straßburg command frequencies were in use and then manually tune the jamming transmitter to one of them. The Type 650 automatically defeated the receiver, regardless which radio frequency had been selected for a missile.
Incredible
Thanks for watching as always, Boio
Hey Indy and team. I don't know if you guys noticed, but your map shows the Hague as a different dot/city than Rotterdam and Amsterdam, but similar to other cities which host their nation's government.
So what I want to know from you if it's actually correct that that different 'dot' actually shows where a national government is located rather than a capital?
No Time Ghost Army recruitment video at the beginning?😢
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So little ground being made but ground none the less being made in the hell that is New Guinea. Well done Aussies!
"And it is certainly not downhill from there for anyone...."
- I like that anti-foreshadowing!
Another great episode.
Kharkov changed hands how many times? "That ain't nothing. Located in the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester was the most contested town in the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865), changing hands more than seventy times and earning its reputation (in the words of a British observer) as the shuttlecock of the Confederacy." -- Encyclopedia Virginia
Still very rough for the people of Kharkov.
If Gorillas are irregular feed them more bananas.
Do you think the US and UK considered The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic as the unwanted ally. Looks like it. Obviously one must choose between the lesser of two weevils.
A lot was learned by the disastrous air drop for the 82nd Airborne in Sicily. Markings for the Allied aircraft carrying paratroopers and supply drops prevented the same disaster from happening again thereafter including Normandy and the Nederlands operations.
SPOILER
Minus the USSR the Axis, or at least the European end of it, might have pulled off a draw if only facing the Western Allies. D Day might well have failed.
Thank you Charles, that was… a lot
"It I certainly not all down hill from here for anyone" well apart from the millions of innocent people caught in the middle of this madness.
I'm reminded of Hawkeye from MASH about war being much worse than Hell. Because at least there are no innocent bystanders in Hell.
Don't know if I'm happier for this episode or football starting back up today
Go Big Red!
5 hours in, 300ish comments and 5.3k likes. This is a channel doing very well.
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Loved the choice of photo from Kharkov at 11:21 ... The banner above the cavalry says in Ukrainian: "Long live the military alliance of the peoples of the USSR, England (sic!) and the USA. Nice!
Correct. The caption says it was taken in 1942 but the Red Army soldiers on horseback appear to be wearing the M1943 tunic with shoulderboards, so I would say 1943 or later.
Good eye
For betrayal of the Motherland: Death!
Words that still ring true today.
there is a lack of northern front activities here. the 3. defensive battle south of lake ladoga (3. Abwehrschlacht südlich des Ladogasees) ends for my great grandpa on the 24th. his duty there was for 1 month, starting 27 of july. now his wehrpass only reports about defensive battles before leningrad.
Great episode as always team!
* Bringing this up based on the opening comment Indy made about the race for Berlin in this week's episode. *
It has never made sense to me the argument that some people make saying the Western Allies should have pushed to beat the USSR to Berlin. Could the Allies have gotten there and either captured or helped in capturing the city? Yes, they could have done so. But it made no sense for the Allies to do so either. The agreement for how split-up Germany would be handled after the end of the war was already established by the point that Eisenhower had the option to send the US 9th Army to the West side of Berlin. If Eisenhower was to send William Simpson's US 9th Army to rush ahead to either capture or help the USSR capture Berlin all it would have done was cause the Western Allies to take more casualties in what was already the bloodiest war in human history. This is because Berlin was in the USSR's agreed-upon territory in Germany that the USSR would get to hold control over after Germany finally surrendered. So if the Simpson's US 9th Army captured the city or portions of it they would have had to hand the territory back over to the USSR anyway just like the Western Allies had to do in the areas that Patton's 3rd Army and Alexander Patch's US 7th Army pushed into and captured during the ending period of WW2. So what is the reward the US and other Western Allies would have gotten if they captured or helped capture Berlin? I would say all they would have gotten if they captured the city, parts of it or just held the Western front of the encircled German capital city is some more "glory". And that would have been at the cost of likely tens of thousands of casualties on the US side all for some more glory. Since as I said before above, the US would not get to hold control of the territory that Simpson took as Berlin was in the area that the USSR was to get to control after the war. And needing more "glory" in WW2 for the winning side is pointless as well. That only changes if you are a nation just getting into WW2 at the very end such as the rebuilt French 1st Army serving under General Devers 6th Army Group, Devers also had control of the US 7th Army, which was fighting much further South of Berlin to be able to try to take Berlin.
** Side note, Jacob Devers is such a forgotten WW2 General, the man held the same responsibility as other massively celebrated generals like Omar Bradley (12th army group) and Montgomery (21st army group) and yet unless you are a WW2 history buff you will most likely have never even heard of the man. He even controlled the same number of armies in WW2 as Montgomery did, both controlling 2 (7th US and 1st French Armies for Devers and 2nd British and 1st Canadian Armies along with a US army here and there for brief periods of time during the war for Montgomery). Bradley of course had the largest Army Group in his 12th Army Group controlling the US 1st, 3rd, 9th and 15th Armies with the US 3rd Army under Patton being by far the largest Western Allied Army during WW2 by the end of the war. You can even make the argument that Patton's 3rd army was like another Allied Army Group since he controlled 18 divisions by the end of the war. Montgomery had 18 divisions under his control at the end of WW2 over his 2 armies in his 21st Army Group. Devers had 25 divisions in his Army Group 6 over his 2 armies at the end of WW2. And Mark Clark in Italy had 25 divisions under his control over 2 armies at the end of the war as well. Omar Bradly of course had WAY more divisions then any of the other 3 Western Army Group commanders under his Army Group 12 at the end of the war since he controlled the massive US 3rd army as well as 3 more Armies in the US 1st, 9th and 15th Armies (so Bradly had 2 more armies under his control then any of the other 3 army group commanders did along with controlling the US 3rd army which was in terms of size could the claim to be another Army Group. It can even be argued that Patton's 3rd Army was the largest single army in all of WW2 because most German, Soviet, Japanese and Chinese armies' were normally in the size range of 3-8 divisions. The German 6th Army may have made it to 18 very damaged divisions by it's end when it was surrounded with many of the German 4th Panzer Armies divisions as well which were then put under German General Paulus's command in the pocket at Stalingrad. **
It's interesting that Stalin seemed to legitimately have no designs on Western Europe, or even Germany outside of the agreed upon boundaries. An Indy 'Stepping outside the timeline': the war goes very well, if extremely bloody, for the next few months for the Soviets. To the Americans and British it begins to look like Germany might collapse or the Soviets overrun the whole of Europe before they can begin the invasion of Normandy or cross the Alps from Italy. Some think its more likely that the alternative plans drawn up for an emergency intervention in France are more likely to happen than what will become the actual Overlord plans.
In the run-up to the Tehran conference there is frantic discussion about what to do when, not if, Stalin attempts to get them to scrap their invasion of Western Europe and save the final victory and as much territory as they can gobble up for himself and the USSR. Of course when they get to Tehran, not only does Stalin still want an intervention in France, he also wants them to make additional landings in Southern France, for the allies to stop fucking around with little side-adventures in the Mediterranean, and for all that to happen as soon as possible. About the only thing he doesn't want is the allies to attack into the Balkans through Greece.
Thank you Vinny!