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Further censorship? When on earth are the lies our grandfather was fed to aid his death going to end? Can you folks not see the face slapping irony of your sub-censorship "guidelines"? I so hoped to enjoy you and your friends but ....
They had a strategic reason for making the Yamato class. they were trying to make an overwhelming quality ship class as they could not match the number of hulls Britain and the US could field against them. Also, US straegic doctrine limited theit BB size to what could navigate the Panama Canal. US BBs were considerably smaller than the Yamatos, and the fast BBs coming online were built to different strategic doctrine than the IJN.. The IJN also took a long time to accept the fact that CVs were the new Queens of Naval Combat, even efter Pearl Harbor.
It's almost comical to remember how optimistic the Germans were about Barbarossa before it began. The Soviets haven't even fully organized yet and it's already presenting SO many issues for the Germans!
Yes, but same counts for the soviets at this time. Basically the eastern front wasnt really fun for anyone from the start until the very bitter end, truly horrifying.
It's true that the germans had underestimated the soviets a lot, but don't forget that those counterattacks not only are slowing the germans, but also costing many casualties for the soviets becuase of their unprepearedness. The team is focusing a lot on the german flaws, but form July to probably even november even the most determined soviets asked themselves if they were going to hold on. Of course the soviets had also the time on their side compared to the germans.
@@lorenzodimaio6672 The Red Army response seems more thought out and organized at this point than the Wehrmacht's attack does. The Soviets generals seem to be aware of the limitations of their forces' abilities and are acting accordingly, unlike the OKH who are trying to do too much with too little. Blunting the effect of the Germans massed armored forces by spreading their armies out and keeping up pressure from multiple directions seems like the smart thing to do, since they couldn't match their superiority in material or training and making massed counterattacks would be suicidal. Watching it play out on a map reminds me of those nature videos where a pack of hyenas takes down a huge wilderbeast or elephant. The hyenas get knocked around and beat to s@@t in the process, but eventually they slow the larger animal down enough to start doing serious damage to its weak spots.
There actually is a tradition here in Poland to raise a toast "to horses' health" on midnight. It is a whole ceremony, a song and all. Obviously it is not a very common tradition, however almost anyone involved in horse-riding these days knows it.
Some idea of the depth of the disaster engulfed Red Army in Battle of Frontier and Battle of Smolensk between 22 June-28 July 1941 , can be gauged from the diary of Nikolai Moskvin, a Soviet political commissar, which records a rapid transition from optimism (‘we’ll win for sure,’ he wrote on 24 June 1941) to despair a few weeks later (‘what am I to say to the boys?’ he asked himself gloomily on 23 July 1941: ‘We keep retreating’). On 15 July 1941 he had already shot the first deserters from his unit, but they kept on fleeing, and at the end of the month, after being wounded, he admitted: ‘I am on the verge of a complete moral collapse.’ His unit got lost because it did not have any maps, and most of the men were killed in a German attack while Moskvin, unable to move, was hiding in the woods with two companions, waiting to be rescued. Some peasants found him, nursed him back to health, and conscripted him into helping with the harvest. As he got to know them, he discovered they had no loyalty to the Stalinist system. Their main purpose was to stay alive. After battles, they rushed on to the field to loot the corpses. What in any case would loyalty to Stalin have brought them? In August 1941, Moskvin encountered some Red Army soldiers who had escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp. ‘They say there’s no shelter, no water, that people are dying from hunger and disease, that many are without proper clothes or shoes.’ Few, he wrote, had given a thought to what imprisonment by the Germans would mean. Evans, Richard J.. The Third Reich at War (The History of the Third Reich)
This ruthless clash of ideologies was starting to spawn a vicious brutality. Hans Meier-Welcker, a staff officer with the German 251st Infantry Division at Smolensk sector, was worried by the violence being unleashed, remarking: ‘We often find Russian officers shooting themselves rather than surrendering to us.’ Meier-Welcker, a decent soldier, was concerned that the German killings were already becoming counterproductive. He was also ready to pay tribute to his foe, acknowledging: ‘The Russian stands out from other fighters as the most courageous opponent we have yet met in this war.’ Looting by German troops was as widespread as it had been in Poland. ‘Everywhere,’ wrote General Gotthard Heinrici caustically on 23 June 1941, ‘our people are looking for harnesses and take the horses away from the farmers. Great wailing and lamentation in the villages. Thus is the population “liberated”.’ Their requisitioning of food, he added on 4 July 1941, was thorough and comprehensive. ‘But the land will likely soon be sucked dry.’ The troops’ behaviour quickly alienated even people who had initially welcomed them as liberators from Stalin’s tyranny. ‘If our people were only a bit more decent and sensible!’ lamented Hans Meier-Welcker. ‘They are taking everything that suits them from the farmers.’ Meier-Welcker saw soldiers stealing chickens, tearing beehives apart to get at the honeycomb, and throwing themselves upon a gaggle of geese in a farmyard. "The villages are burning, and little is spared from the flames. Some of the women kneel before our soldiers, crying hysterically, because we are taking their last cow or chicken from them" then "This is predetorary stupidity" concluded Meier-Weckler "by destroying their homes we release swarms of angry bees to hover over heads". He tried to discipline the looters, but it was a lost cause. One army officer in German Army Group Center reported on 31 August 1941 from another part of the front: The population not only in Orscha, but also in Mogilev and other localities, has repeatedly made complaints concerning the taking of their belongings by individual German soldiers, who themselves could have no possible use for such items. I was told, amongst others, by a woman in Orscha, who was in tears of despair, that a German soldier had taken the coat of her three-year-old child whom she was carrying carrying in her arms. She said that her entire dwelling had been burnt; and she would never have thought that German soldiers could be so pitiless as to take the clothes of small children. " Orders from Army Headquarters threatening punishment for such acts remained a dead letter. In Witebsk troops removed all but eight of the town collective’s 200 cattle, paying for only twelve of them. Huge quantities of supplies were stolen, including a million sheets of plyboard from a local timber yard, and 15 tons of salt from a storehouse. When the weather turned cold, troops began stealing wooden furniture from people’s houses to use as fuel. In the south, Hungarian troops were said to be ‘taking everything that was not nailed down’. The local people referred to them as ‘Austrian Huns’. Scores of thousands of troops were forcibly billeted on townspeople, eating them out of house and home. In desperation, many women turned to prostitution. In some areas the incidence of venereal disease among German troops soon reached a rate of 10 per cent. The establishment of 200 official army brothels for the troops in the east did little to alleviate this situation. Rapes were far from uncommon, though rape was not used as a deliberate policy by the army; yet of the 1.5 million members of the armed forces condemned by court-martial for offences of all kinds, only 5,349 were put on trial for sexual offences, mostly as a result of complaints by the female victims. The courts dealt with this kind of offence leniently, and arrests for looting and theft even fell after 22 June 1941. Clearly German Army was turning a blind eye to misbehaviour of its own troops in east Evans, Richard J.. The Third Reich at War (The History of the Third Reich) . Jones, Michael. The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat .
On 13 July the German 137th Infantry Division crossed the river Berezina at Borisov. ‘Very hot again,’ wrote Leopold Höglinger, the radio operator. ‘The bridges we have constructed are first class. On the other side of the river, our tanks and infantry are massing.’ At this very spot, at the end of November 1812, Napoleon’s army had fought a desperate three-day rearguard action - suffering heavy casualties - while their engineers built pontoon bridges across the ice. ‘The remains of the props driven into the river bed by the French are still visible when the water is clear,’ said General Günther Blumentritt, chief of staff of the German Fourth Army. ‘They suffered such appalling losses here.’ But these scenes of suffering seemed far away. After Army Group Centre’s victory at Minsk the German advance continued, their forces now pressing on towards Smolensk. Fighting was growing in intensity. ‘There are now air battles above us,’ Höglinger noted on 16 July. ‘We can hear artillery salvoes - ahead, the forest is burning.’ The country’s reserves of manpower , equipment and sheer weight to fight ven sprodically was disturbing for Germans. Leopold Höglinger’s 137th Infantry Division was now fighting in the encirclement battle of Smolensk. On 17 July he noted: ‘Our heavy artillery fire has silenced the enemy’s batteries and wiped out a column of their troops. The shooting went on all day. We had to repel several Russian breakout attempts.’ On 20 July he added: ‘Although the Russians are trapped, they have dug themselves in well, and are defending themselves tenaciously.’ On 23 July Höglinger saw the ‘G’ insignia of Colonel General Heinz Guderian’s tank and armoured vehicles, as the German Second Panzer Group pushed forward. ‘There has been a tough fight here,’ he said. ‘On either side of the road one can see the wreckage of Russian planes and tanks.’ On 26 July Höglinger stood on a hill overlooking Smolensk: ‘This large, beautiful city lies in front of me,’ he wrote. ‘But along the horizon are fires and huge clouds of smoke.’ The trapped Russian forces west of the city were still desperately resisting. ‘All day there was continuous artillery fire,’ Höglinger added. ‘Our planes are in the sky above us, then Russian bombers.’ On 27 July the battle was finally over. ‘The Red Army has finally pulled back, and Smolensk is secure. Field Marshal von Kluge and Colonel General Guderian came to our HQ and gave speeches of congratulation.’ That night crates of beer were brought up for the troops. It had been a tough fight Jones, Michael. The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat . John Murray Press.
Although the Germans would capture large numbers of Soviet POWs well into 1942, it did gradually filter through that being captured was no salvation and might just mean a slow death rather than a quick one.
Would love to see more of the Soviet perspective: who wrote what in their diaries, what the high command were planning, what was the social morale like
One commissar or officer's diary fell into German hands after he was killed in October 1941. It was translated into German - it paints a grim picture of constant marching to escape encirclements, low morale among troops and so on. The diary described a solitary German being captured but he gave little or no information - he was covered in lice and appeared to be frightened and educationally subnormal. The Russian original of the diary has been lost, however, and there may have been some propaganda embellishment by the Germans.
I've been following the show for over a year by now, translating some of the episodes of Between Two Wars to Russian, and I still can't overemphasize how important this series is in the large scale of things. We are able to finally see the events both at scale and in detail, from the perspective few to no contemporary had. Instead of bird-view myths, we can finally see what were the true strengths and weaknesses of each side at each point of the conflict. In the light of my home country efforts to mythologize each aspect of the war, and then learning that much of this myth is but a myth, and then starting to doubt everything, this series provides a kind of anchor point in the arguments. Thank you so much for your great job.
Well said. I myself have been coming to terms with a different view of the German narrative, the pov of which permeated my youth. I am 'pleased' (if such is the right word) that the Soviet Archives allowed the 'West' to see this war from the perspective of one of the key (if not the key) players in defeating the Third Reich.
@@828enigma6 Look, that is the worst problem people now have in Russia. The war and its victims became mythologized. Veterans are revered at every corner, but the few still living are treated as garbage. They are useful as sacred martyrs and a decoration at the Vicroty Day parade on the Red Square, but not as very old people that require care and support. My grand-granddad died in this war in the Battle of Rzhev. The body was never found - just as of thousands upon thousands of others blown to pieces by artillery barrage. And since the body was not found he - like thousands upon thousands of others - was as good as a traitor. And so my granny's family never received any support from the state, the way the families of confirmed casualties did. I don't deserve your kudos. I wasn't there. No more deserve it those people who, being born long after the war, scream "Grandparents fought!!!" as a ground to dismantle that little bit of freedom that has been left, and do all those atrocities Russia does now in the name of those long fallen, including my grand-granddad. Dead don't need kudos, they are no more. What we all need is an understanding. Not of "who won the war", but "what was the war". And that's what this series basically is.
I found your comments very interesting, as an Russian residing, within Russia! I’m a devoted history lover and I have often used his information, thorough descriptions and references very informative often proficient In filling, any gaps
It's fun how people nowadays think Hitler almost got Barbarossa in the bag were if not for Russian winters and a halted offensive on Moscow when in reality he was like "Oh shit what do we do now?" few weeks from the start of the Operation.
It was like punching that big drunk guy in the bar who looks like he's ready to go down. The you realize he isn't as drunk as you thought he was, he didn't go down, and has huge reach and weight advantages on you.
I agree, i would say that even without the mud in the autumn and the early winter they had such big supply problems that they never would have beaten the Red Army. An attack on this big country was pointless from the beginning. Well, even if the Wehrmacht took Moscow, i see no chance of a victory.
@@altergreenhorn To be fair even the Allies thought so, expecting the Soviet military to collapse quickly, but even if that happened completely it would have not been easy to deal with an hostile civilian population, just look at what happened to USA in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Japan: "Our military offensive in China is not sustainable and destroying our economy. Therefore, we should begin another military offensive in the South Pacific." #AxisLogic
It kind of made sense to be honest. They were being strangled for resources. They wouldn't have been able to sustain the war in China without more resources. It was basically give up China or find a way to get more resources. The resources were in the south pacific.
Except the offensive had zero chance of "going to plan", because the only way that would have happened is if the standard Axis assumption of "we strong, they weak, they will collapse in a couple weeks tops" had been true. They were fucked regardless.
Japan “we have fought wars with the Soviet Union and China and have begun to run out of resources. So, logically we now need to attack the British empire then the USA. That’ll solve our issues”
Guderian’s forces captured the city of Smolensk itself on 15 July but a large gap between the two Panzer Groups remained north and east of the city. By 20 July Guderian’s thrust to the south of Smolensk and Hoth’s to the north threatened to encircle the bulk of three Soviet armies - Sixteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth - in a pocket north-east of the city. The shape of the pocket was partly determined by the marshes to the north and north-west of Smolensk. That day Zhukov ordered the Western Strategic Direction to organize a counteroffensive including four armies from Stavka’s strategic reserve, in order to rescue Soviet forces which were nearly trapped. Timoshenko’s forces would be divided into four ‘operational groups’ known by the names of their commanders. There was also a fifth, under Rokossovskiy, who had just been promoted to command Sixteenth Army after his IX Corps had successfully bloodied the Germans in the battles on the South-Western Front. Rokossovskiy’s army was defending the Yartsevo area, where the main Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow railway crosses the River Vop, which flows south into the Dnepr. The five Soviet groups would attack concentrically, towards the encircled Soviet forces. The Germans continued eastwards, and Rokossovskiy was in the thick of the fighting. He held the Germans from 18 to 23 July and counter-attacked on the 24th, all the time managing to keep in contact with the three Soviet armies in the pocket. General Kurochkin, commanding Twentieth Army, took overall command of the forces there and managed to keep the Germans back and the mouth of the pocket open until 26 July when the Germans linked up east of the city. However, the Soviet counter-attacks enabled more than 100,000 of the Soviet forces by 4 August to break out eastwards, where Rokossovskiy was holding the line at Yartsevo. 14 The Luftwaffe fought back furiously, against ‘a group of enemy forces attacking across the Vop, a situation which endangered not only the army units but also the command post of the air corps [VIII] itself east of Dukhovshchina, as well as several of its airfields’. Rokossovsky ‘dagger’ was striking back hard at high-value German targets. The Luftwaffe had tried to close the gap, but failed. Insufficient aircraft were available and paratroops, who could have closed the gap, ‘were no longer to be dropped from the air after their heavy losses on Crete [May 1941]’. The gap could therefore be closed by day only, until the pocket was finally considered closed on 5 August. Absolute War , Soviet Russia in Second World War , Chris Bellamy
Tactical aviation was proving to be a key player on both sides. In spite of appalling losses, Soviet ground-attack planes flying singly or in pairs at very low level caused considerable psychological stress. The German fighters usually arrived too late to catch them and could not pursue because they were not heavily armoured (unlike the Soviet Il-2 Shturmoviks) and at very low level would meet massive small-arms fire from Soviet troops on the ground. The Germans were therefore ordered to strengthen their own low-level air defences with additional machine guns, as the Russians had done right from the start. This happened all along the eastern front. The Luftwaffe was also tasked to knock out Soviet ‘monitors’ - shallow-draught gunboats on the rivers - especially south of the Pripyet marshes. The fighting on the eastern front underlined the need for the Luftwaffe’s own ground support troops to be extremely well trained, since in order for the short-range aircraft to keep up with the rapidly advancing ground troops, they had to set up new airfields quickly, establish all-round defence not only against air attack but also against Soviet partisans and stragglers, and install communications. There was no ‘front line’. Absolute War , Soviet Russia in Secod World War - Chris Bellamy
I don’t know why, but the part about the horses really fucked me up. My family have always kept horses in the Netherlands and I always heard stories how the deliberately fed the horses poorly to make sure that the Nazis wouldn’t confiscate them. I also once heard a story about a friend of my grandfather who was halted by a Nazi patrol while riding whit his horse carriage, they wanted to confiscate his horse and carriage for the eastern front to ‘defeat bolshevism’. So he quickly lifted up the leg of the horse to push a pebble in it to make it look crippled, and it worked. They didn’t want crippled horses so they left him alone.
All the people who die, however ruthlessly, can still be seen as dying for their country. Hard-working animals like horses, though, have no politics, and die without even the hint of a higher cause.
@@dpeasehead That was true for most wars from very early warfare, egyptian chariots, greeks, romans... to more modern napoleon, krimea, ww1, ww2, even now animals of burden are used to transport weapons/troops in middle east, not to same extent though.
Nazi Germany was a colossal kleptocracy. They stole everything. Millions died as a result, often women and kids in horrific circumstances. Even now, some folk support them. I leave you good citizens to decide.
@Bob1934 There is a very similar story about a captured German officer from Monte Cassino. He had only seen the Allied troops he was fighting. When he was taken prisoner and led behind the lines he saw miles and miles of supplies and reinforcements ready to advance.
@@wtfbros5110 No, they requisitioned 30 to 40% of food, industrial production, animals, etc. The general taxation for occupied countries was 30% but another big chuk was payed with an ''asimetrical leverage''
I like how well you guys are dispelling the myth that the Russian winter alone is what stopped the German advance. The Russians fought hard from day 1 (as you guys have noted) and as the war continues and they get better coordination and more equipment I think we'll really get to see just how powerful a force they were even by the end of 1941
One thing to note. Many Russian Officers early on threatened death to any who would leave their positions or be captured and returned. So in almost every way they would die. This was even before the directives to kill many who did return after capture. So they fought hard, yes, but under the penalty of death if they didnt.
@@suavifyu8937 that’s simply not true. Many truly believed in the dream of socialist future because for many live has improved dramatically between 1917-1941.
@@pyatig you can read about what I said in my post, it is part of the historical record. Yes many had better lives, but the orders to kill those who abandoned positions or surrendered were true.
"People like Rob are making sure that our horses are well fed and watered..." *Proceeds to introduce Duncan, Hans and Stanislaw who look like they could be soviet POW*
If at 100 weeks we finally get introduced to our glorious friends Hans, Stanislaw and Duncan, I can only dream of what we get at 200 and 300 weeks. A full episode's worth of telephone conversations? Official release of the coveted Indy Mug?
In case you did not understand the reference in the beginning: WWI took 225 weeks. Indy was making a joke about how everyone used to think that wars are over really quickly.
This week in British controlled Egypt: On Wednesday, July 23, 1941, the Greek government - in - exile gave green light to the creation of 'Ι Greek Brigade', the Land Component of the Free Greek Forces. The Brigade was based in El-Geneifa, South Sinai, Egypt, was re-equipped with British weapons, and was put under the veteran of the Greco-Italian War, Colonel Pausanias Katsotas. After the evacuation of King George II and the Greek government from Crete during the night of May 22-23, 1941, and the adamant refusal by the British government to the official Greek request of allowing them to relocate to Cyprus, the Greek government headed by King George II, were transported to British controlled Egypt, and made Cairo their seat. As soon as the Greek government - in - exile established themselves in Cairo, proclaimed the creation of Free Greek Forces that would continue from there the fight against the Axis. In early June, the 'Command of Royal Hellenic Armed Forces Middle East' was formed, naming Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Dzanakakis as its first commandant. With a Royal Degree, the nucleus of the new Free Greek Forces was the 'Phalanx of Greeks in Egypt' composed of enthusiastic young males from the considerable communities of ethnic Greeks living in Cairo and Alexandria. It was a regular unit established for the first time in December 1940 during the Greco-Italian confrontation in Albania, with the approval of the Egyptian authorities and the British, trained by the British, ready to be transported in case of emergency to the Albanian front. The Phalanx provided in June, 1,784 officers and other ranks. 20 additional battle-hardened officers had already joined them since the beginning of the month, after Crete was evacuated by the allies. 521 Greek Egyptians eligible for conscription (aged 19 and above) were also drafted into Navy service, and 612 into Air Force service.
On July 15, 1,249 all ranks from the 'Evros Brigade' supplemented the Phalanx; the men were held until then in Turkey (the Greek Evros Brigade crossed the border to Turkey in order to evade captivity, four days after the Germans invaded, on April 10) but with intense Greek diplomatic and consular efforts, the Turkish authorities agreed to let them free on condition they would not stay in neutral Turkey. 170 gendarmes who managed to evade captivity on Crete and reach Egypt, and one battalion of Dedecanesian volunteers from the Italian-held Dodecanese islands, and other Greek islanders, also joined the Phalanx. Following the Royal Degree that ordered the dissolving of the 'Phalanx of Greeks in Egypt' and the absorbing of its personnel into the Greek Brigade, the 5,471-strong unit comprised: -HQ Company with 131 all ranks. -Three Infantry Battalions of four companies each (1st Battalion with Greek Egyptians and evacuees from Crete under Μaj. Ioannis Sotiriou, 2nd Btn with ex-Evros Brigade troops under Μaj. Tryphon Triantafyllou, 3rd Btn with volunteers from the Greek islands under 1st Lt Ioannis Pilikas), in total 2,770 all ranks. -One 868-strong Field Arty Regiment, with 24 Ordnance QF 25-pounder guns, and 12 Ordnance QF 2-pounder AT guns, under Col. Athanassios Daskarolis. -Transport Coy, Mechanised Sq. with Universal Carrier light armoured tracked vehicles, MG Coy, Engineer Coy, Signals Section, Military Police Section, Field Hospital (in total, 1,702 all ranks). The Brigade would see action in the Second Battle of El-Alamein. [I Greek Brigade's patch emblem] i.imgur.com/F1OwnAJ.jpg [Col. Katsotas (right) with Monty in Egypt] i.imgur.com/XDjc93d.jpg
Αποστόλης Μ. My father was one of the Greeks from Alexandria who joined Greek Brigade within British Forces , he served with distinction. After that he return to Greece to become a communist partisan in Civil War....
kr0k0deilos yes , he eventually end up in Poland with many others for a long time. Was able to comeback to Greece only during socialist government of Papandreou
Herman Goering was asked after the German surrender why they did not use poison gas in combat, especially at the end. He replied, "The horses." He explained that the German army was critically dependent on horse drawn artillery and logistical support. The Germans were not able devise an effective gas mask for their horses. They had gas masks that could protect the horses, but the horses would not pull, or would even sit down when wearing the gas masks, making them useless. Due to the uncertainties of using gas, such as wind shifts, the risk was too great.
It’s only mid 1941 and it seems like things are already going disastrously for the Germans in the USSR, I’m genuinely intrigued now as to how the hell this war is going to keep grinding on for another 4 years
The Axis still has a very big industrial base, that's how it manages to continue the war, also the UK is still alone in western Europe. The biggest problems for the Axis are the shortage of fuel and food and the British (and later US) air attacks.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Yet, if you read Overy's "Why the Allies Won", you find that the Nazis make poor use of this industrial base. Indeed, having taken France, they dismantled many of the French factories, transported them to Germany, and never reassembled them. Their war production was far more wasteful of resources than their opponents. In addition, they never "ramped up" their production of war materiele until 1943. The Luftwaffe didn't really increase in size from 1940-1942, nor did the size of their panzer forces. Indeed, to increase the number of panzer divisions they actually reduced the number of tanks in the current divisions and used the tanks thus obtained to equip the new divisions. Indeed, Overy points to the time frame of 1940-1941 as when Germany really started to lose the war from a production standpoint.
Or maybe about Red Army 'last stands' in general during the first months of the war? Could be interesting to see examples that went against the general narrative of the Soviets getting pushed back in a huge German wave without much stopping them - although the weekly episodes are doing a great job of shattering that myth all on their own right now.
I started watching this series from the start about two months ago and now i have finally caught up to the newest episode. It has been very interesting to watch and i just wanted to thank you guys for all your hard work!
On July 22, 1941 general Dmitry Pavlov, who commanded the Soviet western front, was deprived of military rank and shot for "failure to perform his duties" (he basically disastrously lost the battle of Bialystok-Minsk). Pavlov was a military theorist and a decent tank brigade commander during the Spanish civil war. Still, in February 1941 he was promoted to the second-highest military rank (general of the army) and was made the commander of the Byelorussian military district (army group). Сommanding a brigade and commanding a whole army group are two different things. It's like running a small BBQ joint and then suddenly being promoted to the CEO of McDonald's; of course, you will "fail to perform your duties". This is the direct consequence of military purges, and Pavlov is just one example. Imagine how many capable soviet officers were accused of inadequate performance, stripped of military rank, and even shot only because they were made to command a much larger military unit than they could... Feel kind of bad for them.
I feel like ever since I started reading about Barbarossa since I was a kid most of the books made it sound like that the first few months were a total walkover for Germany. The last few weeks have shown that this was not the case at all. I love having previous long held notions challenged.
One advantage Japan has though is that they don't have to worry about China launching an invasion of their country, if Germany doesn't win they will be invaded by the Soviet Union.
@@oLii96x i mean its 1940 and those weapons are still being made.it might take a tong time for them to be there but if they were made they could greatly change the tide of war edit: i meant 1941
I've never considered that before, and how it might have affected Japan's strategic thinking. Even if they didn't have the natural defense of being an island nation, China was so disorganized and divided throughout the war that there was no chance they'd be able to threaten the home islands. I wonder if Japan would have made different choices if they had to leave a larger portion of their army and navy in Japan for defense, if they would have even tried to launch an attack on the US if it meant risking their homeland getting hit from the other direction.
My grandmother was in Normandy in the months that followed the battle, around the Falaise pocket. The strongest thing she remembers was the smell of dead german horses everywhere. Worst of all, the horses were all bloated and attempting to move them would result in dismembering the carcass and making the smell situation worse. I remember reading about an allied commander who surveyed the area in this period in an observation plane, and he actually had to gain altitude to escape the stench, with clouds of flies everywhere over that area.
The myth about the German army being highly mechanized is just that -- a myth. Especially early in the war, it was little more than a post-WWI army in many respects. The early success the Germans had was because of successful tactics used by its small mechanized units, used in tandem -- a lesson largely learned from the allies' successful, integrated approach to offensive tactics used in 1918.
Facts. It was closer to a Napoleonic army than to what the Americans or even Soviets would deploy. The latter of course thanks to the absurd quantities of lend lease Studebaker and Chevy trucks
Well u r incorrect if u believe German Army learned Combined Arms Tactics from Allied 1918 Offensive. In fact it can be said that it was the Allies who Copied the German Combined Arms Operation. It was The Germans who built & operated the First Attack Bombers specifically built to Support Advancing Infantry in ww1. Operation Michael was Perhaps the First Combined Arms Offensive & funfact it happened way before the Allied Offensive of 1918.
Despite knowing the outcome, I'm finding myself strangely thrilled at the unexpected ferocity of Soviet resistance. The first signs of even more astonishing resistance that would ultimately be the undoing of fascism. Those men and women from Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, Central Asia, who took an obscene amount of punishment but never rested from their fight until the red flag flew over the smoking ruins of Naziism.
@@thecaveofthedead But you see, if we kill a lot of civilians and starve all our prisoners we can make our number look bigger, and that will make small pipis of our supposed teutonic descendants a bit bigger after we get reamed by a bunch of workers and peasants. It is a FLAWELESS PLAN. They will just be able to say: "Look at our numbers" and since they would be bigger we'll win.
@@Armo1997 You are so far from the truth, my grandfather, his younger brother and their cousin all fought in WW2, they were all anti-communists, it didn't matter, they didn't fight for Stalin or Bolshevism, they fought for their motherland, their children, their wives, their homes, their friends and their very right to exist. What do you think if a foreign power attacked Armenia would the Armenians fight for their president/government/parliament/democracy or fight for the same things I listed above? As for the soviet losses on the front.... Yes Stalin's incompetence buried a lot of good men :(
@@Blazo_Djurovic Yep. At the end of the day, for all their strutting and their militarism, people came from the factories and the farms and put them down like vermin. The new fascists strutting about with their guns impressed with how hard they are should reflect on that.
2:15 It looks like the Japanese are slowly showing their moves and ambitions upon the Southern lands with the occupation of Southern French Indochina. That will make their aircraft easily come within reach of British Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. I do hope the British have a strategy against this should the Japanese attack. It seems they are sending ships and convoys to the Soviet Union and Malta but no news of any ships or support to Fortress Singapore in support of the Singapore Strategy yet...
Nah....The Japanese cannot possibly have aircraft that have range to fly from French Indo China to British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. They've got to come from some aircraft carriers...
As long as they are dumb enough to antagonize the US. Right now the US is distracted with Europe. And you won't catch the US napping like it was some sort of holiday weekend!
Bah! I am confident Singapore is safe as it has the unmatched coastal fortress never seen before and natural ditch formations of its north provides ample fortification which makes a land invasion out of question. Maybe sporadic air raids kinda annoying but yeah.
@@skalderman I do think you are overconfident there, old chap. Our army is rather busy at the momment, so if the wily little orientals attack then the Royal Navy may have to detach a battleship or two to the Far East to deal with them ...
I seriously hope there will be a proper rundown of the offensive phase at some point when things get really moving. So far there has been nothing more about it than Finns declaring a state of war and last week like one sentence about an attack. In this weeks maps it seems that the Finns have again gained some ground, but this wasn't even mentioned. It's only a few months until the whole front quiets down for a couple years anyway.
I think Indy will summarise the Finnish offensive phase at some point. Let's be honest. Most action during Operation Barbarosa was down South of the Finnish front. We will get the spotlight again for sometime in the Summer 1944 : *Largest battles at the Finnish front were fought in Summer of 1944.* in Finnish Karelia.
I enjoy for subtitles in italian, this part of story is too interesting and i can understand all that you tell in every single detail, in italian there is not a channel which this who tell's about second world war in every single particulary and in all the world contemporaly, complimenti.
The Blitzkrieg we knew: tanks rolling on vast plains,every infantry divisions are motorized using mainly halftracks,trucks or cars with air support constantly outflanking the enemy along with good logistics and supply lines The Blitzkreig during WW2: overextended supply lines,tanks and motorized infantry constantly outpacing those riding on horses, pocket of resistance being left during the intial attacks which pose problems when not dealt earlier. It also has air support but was stripped in numbers during the invasion of Britain err USSR I MEAN straining them during Barbarossa and not every unit is motorized.
The Blitzkrieg was like that in France in 1940, but the eastern front was a much bigger and less-well-paved theater. Way too much Krieg, not enough Blitz to go around.
Realistically speaking, there was no real unified, from-the-top Blitzkrieg doctrine. France was essentially the fluke that proved a number of theories from the 1930's. The main problem was that beyond that the Germans never had to conquer an area as large as that until they turned their sights to the Soviet Union. The reason things worked out in North Africa was essentially because Rommel was incredibly insubordinate and was more or less let off as long as he was successful. Once the Germans came to the Soviet Union they just went overboard with the whole idea and forgot what the real point of "Blitzkrieg" was - namely the focus of overwhelming force on one Schwerpunkt - and assumed that because the Slavic peoples were considered inferior, they would offer even less resistance than the French. The division level commanders acting out of their own initiative and Zeitzler preparing the most efficient logistics plan he could under the circumstances are some of the few reasons the campaign in France and the low countries worked as well as it did and even then, by the time they reached the Atlantic coast most of the units were short of spare parts, fuel and ammo. As an operation plan, Fall Barbarossa was basically fucked from jump street. German high command and the Nazi party were just too blind to see it and too stubbornly tied to ideology to admit it.
Thanks for another great episode! P.S. I was already afraid that you would forget to mention the defense of the Brest Fortress, but today it finally happened. P.P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Agreed a really good film. I've visited the Brest Fortress a few times. The building where the "Treaty of Brest-Litvoskt" was signed was bombed, a church was rebuilt, seeing the areas where the soviet snipers were stations was interesting, and standing on the west bridge (an iconic scene) was a bit surreal as you stand their thinking "Germans and soviets fought right here over 70 yrs ago".
I'm reminded of Webster's speech in Band of Brothers: "Say 'Hello' to Ford! And General F-ing Motors! You stupid f-st Pigs! Look at you! You have horses!! What were you thinking?!"
Intro is wonderful. Not only does it reference Indy's previous project, but it also adds to the Indy lore. Considering that Indy has barely aged between 1914-1941, we can assume that either he is a time traveler or has obtained the Cup of the Holy Grail. 4/5
The phot of Conrad von Hotzendorff hanging in the background was a nice touch.Normally we hear of Great German advances into the plains of the Soviet Union when you watch history documentaries. It seems to be much more of a poorly thought out road trip with high explosives. Great work guys!
Shouldn't be that hard to conquer the Soviet Union. I mean I did it twice in Hoi4. You just need all of Europe, capitulate all of the allies, make sure the US isn't at war with you, and tons of plans. Also just encircle all their troops and you can literally drive to Moscow with no trouble at all.(By the way I also had nukes and 400 divisions)
@Super Jono, That is what Hitler and the Japanses thought that the war is like what in HOI4. But what is happening in game is not happening in real life.
You guys should do a special episode where you show the behind the scene making of an episode so everyone can see how much work goes into these video as i know there is a good amount of team work making these excellent videos are possible! Just an idea
Did you cover how diplomatic relations between the UK and Soviets governments were repaired after the invasion of the latter? In this video you mention how Stalin requested the Royal Navy attack northern Norway but when did the UK start caring? Was it immediately after Barbarossa? What's the story there? TIA!
Churchill made a speech right after Operation Barbarossa started on 22 June 1941 , he made no denails his past conflict and opposition against Soviet Union and Bolshevism but summarised all these are past events and unimportant now because they have a common enemy to fight that which if unchecked , intents to conquer all of us. And promised all aid as much as possible made to Soviet Union materially and attacks from West to divert German military resopurces and attention. From then , the relations between UK and Soviet Union began to grow , On 13th July 1941 in UK , Soviet Ambassador Maisky and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden signed an Friendship and Mutual Cooperation Aid Agreement in London. Three days later a British military mission went to Moscow to inspect the situation in Eastern Front in first hand and to determine Russian needs in materiel (Russians were initially very uncooperative though) On 18th July a similar Friendship and Mutual Aid Agreement signed in Moscow by British Ambassador Sir Stafford Cripps and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov.
@@merdiolu At some point, either this year or 1942, Molotov made a rather daring high altitude flight right across Axis Europe in a Soviet transport plane to England.
lol,coffee supplies,Soviet soldiers preferred Vodka,there is a saying that goes"the Soviet soldier can be deprived of food and most essential things,but without Vodka,they refuse to fight",don't know to what strength that is true though.
Hi, I’ve been enjoying your coverage of Operation Barbarossa. I notice that one of your sources is David Glantz. I really like his books too. He does go into depth, though, into areas that you have mentioned in passing but not covered in detail yet, and I wonder if you will. Things like the relocation of the factories from the west of the Soviet Union into its interior. This is taken from Glantz, maybe you can use it somewhere if you talk about it: “Prior to the German invasion, the vast majority of Soviet manufacturing capacity was located in the western portion of the country, particularly major industrial areas such as Leningrad and the Eastern Ukraine. As early as June 24th, the GKO created a council for evacuation to relocate these plants eastward to the Urals and Siberia. The task of coordinating this massive undertaking fell to N.A. Voznesensky. The Council’s Deputy Chairman, the future Premier A.N. Kosygin, controlled the actual evacuation. Voznesensky and Kosygin had to do more than simply move factories and workers, however. In the centrally directed Soviet economy, nothing would happen without careful advance planning to ensure that these factories would mesh with existing plants and raw material supplies in the new locations. Workers had to be housed and fed in remote towns whose populations tripled overnight. Electric plants had to keep operating until the last possible moment to facilitate dismantling in the old locations, then be moved and re-assembled at the new sites. All this had to be done at a point when the industrial sector was shifting gears to accommodate wartime demand and the periodic loss of skilled laborers to the Army. The most pressing problem was the evacuation of the factories, especially in the lower Dnieper and Donbas regions of the Ukraine. The long lines of railroad cars massed in the region puzzled German reconnaissance aircraft. Eight thousand freight cars were used to move just one major metallurgy complex from Zaporozhe in the Donbas to Magnitogorsk in the Urals. The movement had to be accomplished at great speed and despite periodic German air raids on the factories and rail lines. In the Leningrad area the German advance was so rapid that only 92 plants were relocated before the city was surrounded. More than 500 firms and 210,000 workers left the Moscow area in October and November alone. All this machinery arrived in remote locations on a confused, staggered schedule with only a portion of the skilled workforce. In total, 1,523 factories, including 1,360 related to armaments, were transferred to the Volga, Siberia, and Central Asia between July and November 1941. Almost 1.5 million freight cars were involved. Even allowing for the hyperbole so common to Soviet accounts, this massive relocation and reorganization of heavy industry was an incredible accomplishment of endurance and organization.
Training charges. When my dad trained for WW2 he said they used m80s, over sized fire crackers/undersized dynamite charges to simulate explosion. They could still hurt you but they were detonated by remote control or you were in a marked lane which if you strayed from the sergeant would get very very annoyed about.
@@MarshallEubanks Also wasteful of troops and equipment. Some more modern historical works (Glantz in particular) indicate had a nasty tendency to beat his head against brick walls, repeatedly. He did this at Stalingrad, and crossing the Oder in 1945. At the latter battle Heinrici used this to his advantage during the Battle of Seelow Heights.
As it is with most -isms (capitalism being an exception), the proponents were delusional. After all, it is their idea, it MUST be right. And, they'll shoot anyone who disagrees.
@magicblanket Actually, capitalism works because it panders to some of the WORST aspects of humanity, greed, avarice, the quest for power and domination. It does not aspire to greatness or panacea solutions to humanity's problems, just acquisition of wealth. Unlike other -isms, it tends to self-regulate. Sure, unchecked it lurches from peak to peak, tumbling into valleys of self-induced financial depressions and economic crises when its true disciples depart into realms of fantasy. However, unlike most other -isms, these negative impulses can be brought under control through law and regulation. It's adherents don't go on aimless murdering sprees (although the good case can be made that the suppression of the trade unions in the late 1800s and early 1900s does fit this category). It is also not centrally controlled, but tends to be an amorphous ideology that allows whose adherents also have different moral and ethical mindsets (some actually very ethical). I am NOT saying capitalism is great, all I am saying is that it does work after a fashion.
Maybe something like "horses were enough to win against France and the UK in the West, and the USSR is even weaker". Never forget, that Horses brought the Germans next to Moscow, to Leningrad and Stalingrad, and back to Germany as well. In the end it was the war of attrition which sealed the fate for the German aggression and madness. Not the use of horses.
They needed the petrol for the panzers and Luftwaffe. After all, you don't need precious oil and gas to keep your horses moving. Check out TIKs videos on the German oil crisis.
2.75 million horses and mules in total throught the war.. and believed over 1million at a time for a time during... yeah thats a lot of horses people forget.. or are ignorant of how many horses and mules the Germans really used
As always a fantastic episode, Indy and team! I would like to make a small suggestion for Eastory's wonderful maps though. While the Germans have infantry divisions in white and armored ones in black, perhaps change the color of the armored Soviet ones to yellow or orange, rather than just slightly darker red than the usual infantry ones as they're not that clear on the map. No ill will with this comment, just thought it would be nicer. :)
Keep making great content Indy! These videos really helped me a lot during Quarantine, I learn more and more history as you continue these! However I have a question, are you gonna do a Cold War Realtime too? Cuz that's like 45 years lmao
just like in ww1 I feel so bad for the horse, dogs and pigeons who died in this war. And for cats and rabbits that will be used as test subjects for the Japanese.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Disagree It is harder to find Soviet sources but they could use more of them from Glantz, and various memoirs. and some of the modern Russian historians.
Yeah, I was quite surprised of the lack of disclosure that Glantz's works have, specially considering how it is the gateway to many non-western sources. His in depth work about smolensk comes to mind.
Reminds me of the Oregon Trail. In the Movies, TV shows the wagons are all being pulled by horses or mules. In real life, oxen was perferred. In fact if a wagon showed up with horses or mules, they were told to trade them in for oxen. The reason for this was simple, Oxen could thrive on the grasses on the plains, while that same grass would strave horses and mules. Thus when wagon trains would start in the spring, the horse and mule trains would leave the oxen trains way behind, but within a month the oxen would catch up to those horse and mule trains, as the horses and mules started to die of starvation ( and could not be even used as food, they had loss so much fat and muscle by the time they died). That seems to be the limit on heavy use of horses, mules, donkeys and their relatives. They all need better grain then oxen, bison, cattle and they relatives (and why horses were slowly becoming extinct in the wild just before man domesticated horses). Four weeks of heavy use is the most you can get out of a horse or mule. They then needed a break to rebuild they muscles and fat reserves. Oxen could keep on going and while not shown in WWII Soviet Propaganda films, seems to have still be a means up hauling supplies for the Soviets, until replaced by American Trucks as Lead lease kicked in. Just an observation that horses were good in WWII provided you did not use them for more then four weeks at a time. Oxen was still being used in Spain and Russia at that start of WWII, but most of Europe had switched to horses in the 1800s as Railroads replaced those long haul trips previously done by oxen. Russia was just to large to conquored if you relied on horses to haul your supplies. You need oxen or trucks (or a very fast horse army that stayed no longer then three days in any one place, as did the Armies of the Mongols and Timerlane). Long term marches of infrantry must be supported by Oxen or trucks, and the German Army of 1941 had neither.
Great, but the Soviet's condition would be also interesting to hear about. Surely they have extremly dire situations to deal with. What are the current objectives and operations there? I feel like this show tries too hard to bring the point across of the problems and issues with the Axis. It focus too much already on the outcome of the war, and explaining how Germany lost rather than being a neutral week to week like it used to be in The Great War which I much more preferred.
I think part of the problem with showing more of the soviet side is that many war documents and records that detailed how things were going day-to-day are still locked up and classified in Russia, meanwhile most or all of this sort of information is released from archives in Germany. This gives quite an axis-heavy discussion as there’s much more detail on the actions of the German generals, plans, losses, successes, etc. All this could be wrong, but I seem to remember seeing a similar thing discussed a few weeks ago about how many questions about ww2 soviets could be answered or understood if they opened up their archives of documents form the war
@@mission101 Perhaps you are right. Even in that case, I think that should be more clearly communicated, and I am sure we know something about the Soviet side. Even if it is just by going by their actions.
Paul Verse I agree I love this channel and the Great War channel so much and the last few weeks have been pretty enlightening about how much trouble the axis had even at the start of Barbarossa. However I do also think there should be an attempt at how bad this is also going for the soviets I mean they’ve already losses half a million men just as prisoners loads of material and huge swathes of land. Indy mentioned in passing how Soviets aren’t able to keep up with losses but I feel like if I didn’t know the outcome or hadn’t read up on the Eastern front then I would think things are going well for the soviets but they aren’t. I still really love this channel though.
@@pedrolopez8057 I’m not sure about this footage but I’ve read most WW1 video footage was faked, away from the real action. In reality it would have took a very brave or suicidal camera man to stand up outside the trenches and film
@@notmenotme614 In WWII it's a mixed bag. While most countries had combat photography and film units, lots of footage was filmed during training and after the battles too. Almost certainly that 9:48 clip is not real combat footage because the explosion is so small and the person continues to advance unscathed and unbothered like it was nothing. If a mortal shell, rifle grenade, anti-personnel mine or any other kind of explosive device designed to hurt people were to explode that close the blast wave alone would incapacitate the person - and then you have the shrapnel. Even anti-personnel mines create rather big-boom even though most of them are designed to severely wound rather kill the unfortunate person.
I already knew what the Carl mortar was going into this. But what I always picture is like, "The enemy is attacking!" "Fear not! We have Carl!" And it's just some big beefy methed up wermacht berserker.
19 July 1941 , British radio station BBC broadcasted about the "V Army", informing the general public on the resistance movements in occupied Europe 19th July 1941 , UK , Submarine HMS Umpire collided with a trawler off Kent, England, United Kingdom during her sea trials, sinking in 60 feet of water; 22 men were lost. 19 July 1941 North Sea , 11 RAF Blenheim bombers from Coastal Command attacked an eight ship German coastal convoy escorted by six anti-aircraft ships off the Hague, Netherlands, sinking four of the transports and damaging another. 19 July 1941 , Germany , Adolf Hitler ordered that American shipping were not to be attacked by German forces in order to keep the United States from fully entering the war. 19 July 1941 , Atlantic Ocean , German submarine U-66 sank transport Holmside northeast of Cape Verde islands at 1042 hours; 21 were killed, 16 survived. 19 July 1941 , Gulf of Finland , Soviet destroyer Serdityl was bombed and sunk by a German JU-88 bomber 19 July 1941 , Fiji , Fijian ship Viti departed Suva, Fiji for Gilbert and Ellice Islands with New Zealand military servicemen aboard; she was to drop off small reconnaissance parties on many of the atolls and small islands to act as lookouts, or "coastwatchers", to watch for German surface raiders. 19 July 1941 , Germany , Adolf Hitler ordered the German 2nd Panzer Group to move south toward Kiev, Ukraine as soon as the group completed the conquest of Smolensk, Russia. Heinz Guderian, commanding officer of the 2nd Panzer Group, protested and cited Moscow, Russia as the logical primary target, but Hitler would overrule him. 19 July 1941 , Moscow , Joseph Stalin declared himself the Soviet Defense Commissar (NKO). Viktor Abakumov officially assumed the role as the head of UOO of the Soviet NKVD 19 July 1941 , Baltics , Heavy fighting between German and Soviet forces took place near Lake Peipus near Leningrad, Russia. 19 July 1941 , London , Winston Churchill decided to share military intelligence gained by deciphering the German Enigma-encoded messages with the Soviets, but the Soviets would not be told how the intelligence was gained; instead, they were told that the intelligence was gained through a spies in Berlin. 19 July 1941 , Lithuania , SS Eisatzgruppen Task Force A complate execution of 5.000 Jews in smal groups outaside Vilnius and bury them into pits
20 July 1941 , Moscow , USSR , The Soviet Union resumed diplomatic relations with the countries occupied by Germany 20 July 1941 , Six RAF Blenheim bombers from Coastal Command damaged a German tanker off Le Touquet, France with three high explosive bombs and several incendiary bombs, forcing the ship to beach near Berck-sur-Mer to prevent sinking. Two British aircraft and one German Bf 109 fighter were shot down. 20 July 1941 , Mediterranean Sea , Italian torpedo boat Circe sank Royal Navy submarine HMS Union with depth charges southwest of the Italian island of Pantellaria between Sicily and Tunisia. 20 July 1941 , Russia , Soviet destroyer Stremitel'ny was sunk by German aircraft in Kolafjord north of Murmansk, Russia. 20 July 1941 , Leningrad USSR , A trainload of treasures from the Hermitage was sent to safety, to the Ural city of Sverdlovsk. That day, from the Polotsk-Vitebsk area, less than a month earlier Russia’s first line of defence, now behind the lines, a German infantry division assigned to comb the Polotsk-Vitebsk-Nevel triangle, described the area as a ‘partisan region’, and reported that the roads were being mined every day. 20 July 1941 , North Sea , First British naval vessel, a minelayer, crossed the North Sea on its way to the Soviet Arctic port of Archangel with military supplies.
21 July 1941 , Baltic Sea , German submarine U-140 sank the 161-ton Soviet submarine M94 by torpedoes in the Baltic Sea. The survivors were rescued by M98 operating nearby off Hiiumaa Island 21 July 1941 , Japan secured an agreement from the Vichy-French government to permit a virtual Japanese occupation of Indo-China. 21 July 1941 , Gibraltar , The Allied convoy "Substance" departed Gibraltar to supply Malta; it contains six transports, carrier HMS Ark Royal, battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Nelson, several cruisers, and six destroyers. 21 July 1941 , Moscow , USSR , 195 German Luftwaffe bombers, most of which were He 111 bombers, took off from an airfield near Smolensk, Russia to attack the Soviet capital of Moscow in multiple waves during the night; the resulting air alarms were the first to be sounded in the city. Moscow had strong anti-aircraft defences, the city was protected by 170 fighters, and the citizens were able to take shelter in the newly completed underground railway stations, but German air crews reported the presence of very few Soviet fighters after sunset. German records showed six bombers failing to return. Watching the city’s anti-aircraft defences in action, the Western journalist Alexander Werth noted ‘a fantastic piece of fireworks-tracer bullets, and flares, and flaming onions, and all sorts of rockets, white and green and red; and the din was terrific; never saw anything like it in London’. There was a second raid on the following night. 21 July 1941 , Ukraine , Soviet troops evacuated from the positions along the Dniestr River in western Ukraine. 21 July 1941 , London , UK , Hugh Dalton informed Winston Churchill that his Special Operations Executive (SOE) was now ready to support covert operations in German-occupied Europe 21 July 1941 , North Sea , German cargo ship Hans Christophersen struck a mine and sunk off Netherlands 21 July 1941 , Narvik , Norway , German troop transport ship Wandsbeck was bombed and sunk by RAF bombers 21 July 1941 , Washington , USA , President Franklin Roosevelt asked the United States Congress to modify the Selective Service Act, increasing the period of service from one year of active service to also include 30 months in reserve.
Well big European horses needed for that needed a LOT of high quality food to be sustained. Which could be done in Europe due to much shorter distances involved. But in Asia that is not the case, hence different type of horse was used.
@@Blazo_Djurovic During the middle ages only steppe cultures and their warriors regularly moved fighting horses by land over great distances without killing most of them in the process.
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14:30 I thought it was Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Also, I think eclairs are better served as food than as boats.
I ❤️ your video 😉😂
Hi
So TH-cam is against world war two and for common decency or against? Or is it the other way around? Confused
Further censorship? When on earth are the lies our grandfather was fed to aid his death going to end? Can you folks not see the face slapping irony of your sub-censorship "guidelines"? I so hoped to enjoy you and your friends but ....
Economy : we lack steel resources
Navy : YAMATO
*cue space battleship yaaamaaatooo theme*
And MUSASHI
They had a strategic reason for making the Yamato class. they were trying to make an overwhelming quality ship class as they could not match the number of hulls Britain and the US could field against them. Also, US straegic doctrine limited theit BB size to what could navigate the Panama Canal. US BBs were considerably smaller than the Yamatos, and the fast BBs coming online were built to different strategic doctrine than the IJN.. The IJN also took a long time to accept the fact that CVs were the new Queens of Naval Combat, even efter Pearl Harbor.
@A10 go brtt brtt Untrue. They said it made for a very comfortable hotel and club for the VIPs at Truk.......................................
I think they had an anime about this, a fantasy yamato with laser cannons to battle overwhelming ameri, i mean, aliens.
"I want to get off this ride Mr. Hitler!" -German soldier 1 week into Barbarossa
"THE RIDE NEVER ENDS!" - Adolf
"The ride ends when I say it ends," - Josef Stalin.
"I never wanted to take this ride but the class bully said he'd beat me up if I didn't"
"NO SLEEP TIL MOSCOW!"
Good comment. Ok?
“Ride or die”
I'm going to call it right now, this whole thing will be over by Christmas. Eventually I'm always right on this.
Technically speaking you're correct. The question is just which year it's going to be.
Christmas 2024
@@patwiggins6969 nah by christmas 2023 all will be over, Montgomery will see to it.
Yep and the Italians will finally win a Battle of the Isonzo. 🤣🤣🤣
@@JenniferinIllinois One more try should do it, wait who are they fighting this time?
It's almost comical to remember how optimistic the Germans were about Barbarossa before it began. The Soviets haven't even fully organized yet and it's already presenting SO many issues for the Germans!
Yes, but same counts for the soviets at this time. Basically the eastern front wasnt really fun for anyone from the start until the very bitter end, truly horrifying.
It's true that the germans had underestimated the soviets a lot, but don't forget that those counterattacks not only are slowing the germans, but also costing many casualties for the soviets becuase of their unprepearedness.
The team is focusing a lot on the german flaws, but form July to probably even november even the most determined soviets asked themselves if they were going to hold on.
Of course the soviets had also the time on their side compared to the germans.
@@lorenzodimaio6672 indeed. In america even according to experts the predictions were that Moscow would fall.
@@lorenzodimaio6672 The Red Army response seems more thought out and organized at this point than the Wehrmacht's attack does. The Soviets generals seem to be aware of the limitations of their forces' abilities and are acting accordingly, unlike the OKH who are trying to do too much with too little. Blunting the effect of the Germans massed armored forces by spreading their armies out and keeping up pressure from multiple directions seems like the smart thing to do, since they couldn't match their superiority in material or training and making massed counterattacks would be suicidal.
Watching it play out on a map reminds me of those nature videos where a pack of hyenas takes down a huge wilderbeast or elephant. The hyenas get knocked around and beat to s@@t in the process, but eventually they slow the larger animal down enough to start doing serious damage to its weak spots.
I wouldn't really want to trade places with eiter of them.
Toast! To the many horses who died, either from exhaustion, sabotage, enemy fire, or malnutrition :(
There actually is a tradition here in Poland to raise a toast "to horses' health" on midnight. It is a whole ceremony, a song and all. Obviously it is not a very common tradition, however almost anyone involved in horse-riding these days knows it.
That's nice. We say that dogs are man's best friend, but I think horses are a better choice for all their service.
Also to the ones that ended up in the mess hall kettles. One of the often unspoken advantages of horse-based logistics.
Toast?More like glue.
@@wojciechkowalski3344 Would've expected bears
Wehrmacht in concept: Haha tank go Wehrrrrr
Wehrmacht in reality: Umm... horse go clop clop?
Red Army: *dabbing on them Nazi invaders*
TheCimbrianBull yes i do
Wehrmacht in Stalingrad: stomach go grrrrrrrrrr
You have HORSES, what were you thinking?
@@Raskolnikov70 Ambient temperature of -30 go bzzzz
Some idea of the depth of the disaster engulfed Red Army in Battle of Frontier and Battle of Smolensk between 22 June-28 July 1941 , can be gauged from the diary of Nikolai Moskvin, a Soviet political commissar, which records a rapid transition from optimism (‘we’ll win for sure,’ he wrote on 24 June 1941) to despair a few weeks later (‘what am I to say to the boys?’ he asked himself gloomily on 23 July 1941: ‘We keep retreating’). On 15 July 1941 he had already shot the first deserters from his unit, but they kept on fleeing, and at the end of the month, after being wounded, he admitted: ‘I am on the verge of a complete moral collapse.’ His unit got lost because it did not have any maps, and most of the men were killed in a German attack
while Moskvin, unable to move, was hiding in the woods with two companions, waiting to be rescued. Some peasants found him, nursed him back to health, and conscripted him into helping with the harvest. As he got to know them, he discovered they had no loyalty to the Stalinist system. Their main purpose was to stay alive. After battles, they rushed on to the field to loot the corpses. What in any case would loyalty to Stalin have brought them? In August 1941, Moskvin encountered some Red Army soldiers who had escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp. ‘They say there’s no shelter, no water, that people are dying from hunger and disease, that many are without proper clothes or shoes.’ Few, he wrote, had given a thought to what imprisonment by the Germans would mean.
Evans, Richard J.. The Third Reich at War (The History of the Third Reich)
This ruthless clash of ideologies was starting to spawn a vicious brutality. Hans Meier-Welcker, a staff officer with the German 251st Infantry Division at Smolensk sector, was worried by the violence being unleashed, remarking: ‘We often find Russian officers shooting themselves rather than surrendering to us.’ Meier-Welcker, a decent soldier, was concerned that the German killings were already becoming counterproductive. He was also ready to pay tribute to his foe, acknowledging: ‘The Russian stands out from other fighters as the most courageous opponent we have yet met in this war.’
Looting by German troops was as widespread as it had been in Poland. ‘Everywhere,’ wrote General Gotthard Heinrici caustically on 23 June 1941, ‘our people are looking for harnesses and take the horses away from the farmers. Great wailing and lamentation in the villages. Thus is the population “liberated”.’ Their requisitioning of food, he added on 4 July 1941, was thorough and comprehensive. ‘But the land will likely soon be sucked dry.’ The troops’ behaviour quickly alienated even people who had initially welcomed them as liberators from Stalin’s tyranny. ‘If our people were only a bit more decent and
sensible!’ lamented Hans Meier-Welcker. ‘They are taking everything that suits them from the farmers.’ Meier-Welcker saw soldiers stealing chickens, tearing beehives apart to get at the honeycomb, and throwing themselves upon a gaggle of geese in a farmyard. "The villages are burning, and little is spared from the flames. Some of the women kneel before our soldiers, crying hysterically, because we are taking their last cow or chicken from them" then "This is predetorary stupidity" concluded Meier-Weckler "by destroying their homes we release swarms of angry bees to hover over heads". He tried to discipline the looters, but it was a lost cause.
One army officer in German Army Group Center reported on 31 August 1941 from another part of the front: The population not only in Orscha, but also in Mogilev and other localities, has repeatedly made complaints concerning the taking of their belongings by individual German soldiers, who themselves could have no possible use for such items. I was told, amongst others, by a woman in Orscha, who was in tears of despair, that a German soldier had taken the coat of her three-year-old child whom she was carrying
carrying in her arms. She said that her entire dwelling had been burnt; and she would never have thought that German soldiers could be so pitiless as to take the clothes of small children.
"
Orders from Army Headquarters threatening punishment for such acts remained a dead letter. In Witebsk troops removed all but eight of the town collective’s 200 cattle, paying for only twelve of them. Huge quantities of supplies were stolen, including a million sheets of plyboard from a local timber yard, and 15 tons of salt from a storehouse. When the weather turned cold, troops began stealing wooden furniture from people’s houses to use as fuel. In the south, Hungarian troops were said to be ‘taking everything that was not nailed down’. The local people referred to them as ‘Austrian Huns’. Scores
of thousands of troops were forcibly billeted on townspeople, eating them out of house and home. In desperation, many women turned to prostitution. In some areas the incidence of venereal disease among German troops soon reached a rate of 10 per cent. The establishment of 200 official army brothels for the troops in the east did little to alleviate this situation. Rapes were far from uncommon, though rape was not used as a deliberate policy by the army; yet of the 1.5 million members of the armed forces condemned by court-martial for offences of all kinds, only 5,349 were put on trial for sexual offences, mostly as a result of complaints by the female victims. The courts dealt with this kind of offence leniently, and arrests for looting and theft even fell after 22 June 1941.
Clearly German Army was turning a blind eye to misbehaviour of its own troops in east
Evans, Richard J.. The Third Reich at War (The History of the Third Reich) .
Jones, Michael. The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat .
On 13 July the German 137th Infantry Division crossed the river Berezina at Borisov. ‘Very hot again,’ wrote Leopold Höglinger, the radio operator. ‘The bridges we have constructed are first class. On the other side of the river, our tanks and infantry are massing.’ At this very
spot, at the end of November 1812, Napoleon’s army had fought a desperate three-day rearguard action - suffering heavy casualties - while their engineers built pontoon bridges across the ice. ‘The remains of the props driven into the river bed by the French are still visible when the water is clear,’ said General Günther Blumentritt, chief of staff of the German Fourth Army. ‘They suffered such appalling losses here.’ But these scenes of suffering seemed far away. After Army Group Centre’s victory at Minsk the German advance continued, their forces now pressing on towards Smolensk. Fighting was growing in intensity. ‘There are now air battles above us,’ Höglinger noted on 16 July. ‘We can hear artillery salvoes - ahead, the forest is burning.’ The country’s reserves of manpower
, equipment and sheer weight to fight ven sprodically was disturbing for Germans.
Leopold Höglinger’s 137th Infantry Division was now fighting in the encirclement battle of Smolensk. On 17 July he noted: ‘Our heavy artillery fire has silenced the enemy’s batteries and wiped out a column of their troops. The shooting went on all day. We had to repel several Russian breakout attempts.’ On 20 July he added: ‘Although the Russians are trapped, they have dug themselves in well, and are defending themselves tenaciously.’ On 23 July Höglinger saw the ‘G’ insignia of Colonel General Heinz Guderian’s tank and armoured vehicles, as the German Second Panzer Group pushed forward.
‘There has been a tough fight here,’ he said. ‘On either side of the road one can see the wreckage of Russian planes and tanks.’ On 26 July Höglinger stood on a hill overlooking Smolensk: ‘This large, beautiful city lies in front of me,’ he wrote. ‘But along the horizon are fires and huge clouds of smoke.’ The trapped Russian forces west of the city were still desperately resisting. ‘All day there was continuous artillery fire,’ Höglinger added. ‘Our planes are in the sky above us, then Russian bombers.’ On 27 July the battle was finally over. ‘The Red Army has finally pulled back, and Smolensk is secure. Field Marshal von Kluge and Colonel General Guderian came to our HQ and gave speeches of congratulation.’ That night crates of beer were brought up for the troops. It had been a tough
fight
Jones, Michael. The Retreat: Hitler's First Defeat . John Murray Press.
@@merdiolu Death sentences for rape were almost invariably commuted to transfer to service in a penal battalion.
Although the Germans would capture large numbers of Soviet POWs well into 1942, it did gradually filter through that being captured was no salvation and might just mean a slow death rather than a quick one.
@@merdiolu great additions! these should be at the top. Love them east front stories. Where can I read up on these some more?
Would love to see more of the Soviet perspective: who wrote what in their diaries, what the high command were planning, what was the social morale like
Soviet archives are still locked in Russia, archives in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova are still difficult to access.
One commissar or officer's diary fell into German hands after he was killed in October 1941. It was translated into German - it paints a grim picture of constant marching to escape encirclements, low morale among troops and so on. The diary described a solitary German being captured but he gave little or no information - he was covered in lice and appeared to be frightened and educationally subnormal. The Russian original of the diary has been lost, however, and there may have been some propaganda embellishment by the Germans.
@@dragosstanciu9866 David Glanz was allowed in the archives and got LOTS of relevant and Important data!
@@yochaiwyss3843 Yes, because for a brief period of time in the 1990's the Soviet archives were opened.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Yeah but there are tons of memoirs from Georgy Zhukov to Vasily Zaitsev
I've been following the show for over a year by now, translating some of the episodes of Between Two Wars to Russian, and I still can't overemphasize how important this series is in the large scale of things. We are able to finally see the events both at scale and in detail, from the perspective few to no contemporary had. Instead of bird-view myths, we can finally see what were the true strengths and weaknesses of each side at each point of the conflict. In the light of my home country efforts to mythologize each aspect of the war, and then learning that much of this myth is but a myth, and then starting to doubt everything, this series provides a kind of anchor point in the arguments. Thank you so much for your great job.
Dont let Vlad here you say that
Well said. I myself have been coming to terms with a different view of the German narrative, the pov of which permeated my youth. I am 'pleased' (if such is the right word) that the Soviet Archives allowed the 'West' to see this war from the perspective of one of the key (if not the key) players in defeating the Third Reich.
Your country put up a truly Herculean defense against the Nazi. Kudos to your people.
@@828enigma6 Look, that is the worst problem people now have in Russia. The war and its victims became mythologized. Veterans are revered at every corner, but the few still living are treated as garbage. They are useful as sacred martyrs and a decoration at the Vicroty Day parade on the Red Square, but not as very old people that require care and support.
My grand-granddad died in this war in the Battle of Rzhev. The body was never found - just as of thousands upon thousands of others blown to pieces by artillery barrage. And since the body was not found he - like thousands upon thousands of others - was as good as a traitor. And so my granny's family never received any support from the state, the way the families of confirmed casualties did.
I don't deserve your kudos. I wasn't there. No more deserve it those people who, being born long after the war, scream "Grandparents fought!!!" as a ground to dismantle that little bit of freedom that has been left, and do all those atrocities Russia does now in the name of those long fallen, including my grand-granddad.
Dead don't need kudos, they are no more.
What we all need is an understanding. Not of "who won the war", but "what was the war". And that's what this series basically is.
I found your comments very interesting, as an Russian residing, within Russia!
I’m a devoted history lover and I have often used his information, thorough descriptions and references very informative often proficient In filling, any gaps
This tie is terrible on so many levels, and it's exactly my kind of terrible. 4/5
Idk, I'd wear that tie
@@samuelkatz1124 So would I. And pretty soon we can buy it I think
@A10 go brtt brtt The Nicolas Cage kind of terrible
@@gianniverschueren870 Nothing is quite that terrible.
For me it's a 2/5, not my kind of terrible :)
It's fun how people nowadays think Hitler almost got Barbarossa in the bag were if not for Russian winters and a halted offensive on Moscow when in reality he was like "Oh shit what do we do now?" few weeks from the start of the Operation.
It was like punching that big drunk guy in the bar who looks like he's ready to go down. The you realize he isn't as drunk as you thought he was, he didn't go down, and has huge reach and weight advantages on you.
I was taught like that at school, as, I assume, many others. This series is opening my eyes to a lot of things ww2 related.
I agree, i would say that even without the mud in the autumn and the early winter they had such big supply problems that they never would have beaten the Red Army. An attack on this big country was pointless from the beginning. Well, even if the Wehrmacht took Moscow, i see no chance of a victory.
@@pedrolopez8057 Lol nice analogy.
@@altergreenhorn To be fair even the Allies thought so, expecting the Soviet military to collapse quickly, but even if that happened completely it would have not been easy to deal with an hostile civilian population, just look at what happened to USA in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Japan: "Our military offensive in China is not sustainable and destroying our economy. Therefore, we should begin another military offensive in the South Pacific."
#AxisLogic
It kind of made sense to be honest. They were being strangled for resources. They wouldn't have been able to sustain the war in China without more resources. It was basically give up China or find a way to get more resources. The resources were in the south pacific.
#WearenotreadytoinvadeamajoreasterneuropeancountryliketheUSSRbutwedontcare
Gotta make use of that overmobilisation.
Except the offensive had zero chance of "going to plan", because the only way that would have happened is if the standard Axis assumption of "we strong, they weak, they will collapse in a couple weeks tops" had been true. They were fucked regardless.
Japan “we have fought wars with the Soviet Union and China and have begun to run out of resources. So, logically we now need to attack the British empire then the USA. That’ll solve our issues”
Guderian’s forces captured the city of Smolensk itself on 15 July but a large gap between the two Panzer Groups remained north and east of the city. By 20 July Guderian’s thrust to the south of Smolensk and Hoth’s to the north threatened to encircle the bulk of three Soviet armies - Sixteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth - in a pocket north-east of the city. The shape of the pocket was partly determined by the marshes to the north and north-west of Smolensk. That day Zhukov ordered the Western Strategic Direction to organize a counteroffensive including four armies from Stavka’s strategic reserve, in order to rescue Soviet forces which were nearly trapped. Timoshenko’s forces would be divided into four ‘operational groups’ known by the names of their commanders. There was also a fifth, under Rokossovskiy, who had just been promoted to command Sixteenth Army after his IX Corps had successfully bloodied the Germans in the battles on the South-Western Front. Rokossovskiy’s army was defending the Yartsevo area, where the main Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow railway crosses the River Vop, which flows south into the Dnepr.
The five Soviet groups would attack concentrically, towards the encircled Soviet forces. The Germans continued eastwards, and Rokossovskiy was in the thick of the fighting. He held the Germans from 18 to 23 July and counter-attacked on the 24th, all the time managing to keep in contact with the three Soviet armies in the pocket. General Kurochkin, commanding Twentieth Army, took overall command of the forces there and managed to keep the Germans back and the mouth of the pocket open until 26 July when the Germans linked up east of the city. However, the Soviet counter-attacks enabled more than 100,000 of the Soviet forces by 4 August to break out eastwards, where Rokossovskiy was holding the line at Yartsevo. 14 The Luftwaffe fought back furiously, against ‘a group of enemy forces attacking across the Vop, a situation which endangered not only the army units but also the command post of the air corps [VIII] itself east of Dukhovshchina, as well as several of its airfields’. Rokossovsky ‘dagger’ was striking back hard at high-value German targets. The Luftwaffe had tried to close the gap, but failed. Insufficient aircraft were available and paratroops, who could have closed the gap, ‘were no longer to be dropped from the air after their heavy losses on Crete [May 1941]’. The gap could therefore be closed by day only, until the pocket was finally considered closed on 5 August.
Absolute War , Soviet Russia in Second World War , Chris Bellamy
Tactical aviation was proving to be a key player on both sides. In spite of appalling losses, Soviet ground-attack planes flying singly or in pairs at very low level caused considerable psychological stress. The German fighters usually arrived too late to catch them and could not pursue because they were not heavily armoured (unlike the Soviet Il-2 Shturmoviks) and at very low level would meet massive small-arms fire from Soviet troops on the ground. The Germans were therefore ordered to strengthen their own low-level air defences with additional machine guns, as the Russians had done right from the start. This happened all along the eastern front. The Luftwaffe was also tasked to knock out Soviet ‘monitors’ - shallow-draught gunboats on the rivers - especially south of the Pripyet marshes. The fighting on the eastern front underlined the need for the Luftwaffe’s own ground support troops to be extremely well trained, since in order for the short-range aircraft to keep up with the rapidly advancing ground troops, they had to set up new airfields quickly, establish all-round defence not only against air attack but also against Soviet partisans and stragglers, and install communications. There was no ‘front line’.
Absolute War , Soviet Russia in Secod World War - Chris Bellamy
Wow. Great!
I don’t know why, but the part about the horses really fucked me up.
My family have always kept horses in the Netherlands and I always heard stories how the deliberately fed the horses poorly to make sure that the Nazis wouldn’t confiscate them.
I also once heard a story about a friend of my grandfather who was halted by a Nazi patrol while riding whit his horse carriage, they wanted to confiscate his horse and carriage for the eastern front to ‘defeat bolshevism’. So he quickly lifted up the leg of the horse to push a pebble in it to make it look crippled, and it worked.
They didn’t want crippled horses so they left him alone.
All the people who die, however ruthlessly, can still be seen as dying for their country. Hard-working animals like horses, though, have no politics, and die without even the hint of a higher cause.
That guy was pretty smart lol.
@@adm0iii The Napoleonic wars and both of the world wars were murderous for horses and all other beasts of burden and live stock.
@@dpeasehead That was true for most wars from very early warfare, egyptian chariots, greeks, romans... to more modern napoleon, krimea, ww1, ww2, even now animals of burden are used to transport weapons/troops in middle east, not to same extent though.
@@adm0iii and pigs, cows and chickens die as well.
I love having my coffee on Saturday morning while watching a new episode of World War Two... Hard to believe it has been 100 weeks.
The horses pulling the German army were often requisitioned (read: state sanctioned stolen) from the population of the countries captured earlier.
The EVERYTHING the German Army have were often requisitioned (read:state sanctioned stolen) from the population of the countries conquered earlier
Nazi Germany was a colossal kleptocracy. They stole everything. Millions died as a result, often women and kids in horrific circumstances. Even now, some folk support them. I leave you good citizens to decide.
Neil Wilson they literally kidnapped and killed people to then steal their shit
@Bob1934 There is a very similar story about a captured German officer from Monte Cassino. He had only seen the Allied troops he was fighting. When he was taken prisoner and led behind the lines he saw miles and miles of supplies and reinforcements ready to advance.
@@wtfbros5110 No, they requisitioned 30 to 40% of food, industrial production, animals, etc. The general taxation for occupied countries was 30% but another big chuk was payed with an ''asimetrical leverage''
I like how well you guys are dispelling the myth that the Russian winter alone is what stopped the German advance. The Russians fought hard from day 1 (as you guys have noted) and as the war continues and they get better coordination and more equipment I think we'll really get to see just how powerful a force they were even by the end of 1941
One thing to note. Many Russian Officers early on threatened death to any who would leave their positions or be captured and returned. So in almost every way they would die. This was even before the directives to kill many who did return after capture. So they fought hard, yes, but under the penalty of death if they didnt.
@@suavifyu8937 that’s simply not true. Many truly believed in the dream of socialist future because for many live has improved dramatically between 1917-1941.
@@pyatig you can read about what I said in my post, it is part of the historical record. Yes many had better lives, but the orders to kill those who abandoned positions or surrendered were true.
@@suavifyu8937 and we are seeing a repeat in UKRAINE 2022.
"People like Rob are making sure that our horses are well fed and watered..."
*Proceeds to introduce Duncan, Hans and Stanislaw who look like they could be soviet POW*
If at 100 weeks we finally get introduced to our glorious friends Hans, Stanislaw and Duncan, I can only dream of what we get at 200 and 300 weeks.
A full episode's worth of telephone conversations? Official release of the coveted Indy Mug?
@@spacespectre2853
200 or 300 weeks?! But the war will be over by Christmas!
They looked pretty well fed for Soviet POWs.
@Mars Attacks good question.
@@TheCimbrianBull I was thinking Octoberfest
In case you did not understand the reference in the beginning:
WWI took 225 weeks. Indy was making a joke about how everyone used to think that wars are over really quickly.
Home by Christmas
This was one of the few of Indy's phone calls I actually figured out.
@@patwiggins6969 but which Christmas?
You mean we can't continue using the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 (6 months) as our reference point? The horror!
So how many weeks for WW2?
This week in British controlled Egypt:
On Wednesday, July 23, 1941, the Greek government - in - exile gave green light to the creation of 'Ι Greek Brigade', the Land Component of the Free Greek Forces. The Brigade was based in El-Geneifa, South Sinai, Egypt, was re-equipped with British weapons, and was put under the veteran of the Greco-Italian War, Colonel Pausanias Katsotas.
After the evacuation of King George II and the Greek government from Crete during the night of May 22-23, 1941, and the adamant refusal by the British government to the official Greek request of allowing them to relocate to Cyprus, the Greek government headed by King George II, were transported to British controlled Egypt, and made Cairo their seat.
As soon as the Greek government - in - exile established themselves in Cairo, proclaimed the creation of Free Greek Forces that would continue from there the fight against the Axis. In early June, the 'Command of Royal Hellenic Armed Forces Middle East' was formed, naming Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Dzanakakis as its first commandant. With a Royal Degree, the nucleus of the new Free Greek Forces was the 'Phalanx of Greeks in Egypt' composed of enthusiastic young males from the considerable communities of ethnic Greeks living in Cairo and Alexandria. It was a regular unit established for the first time in December 1940 during the Greco-Italian confrontation in Albania, with the approval of the Egyptian authorities and the British, trained by the British, ready to be transported in case of emergency to the Albanian front. The Phalanx provided in June, 1,784 officers and other ranks. 20 additional battle-hardened officers had already joined them since the beginning of the month, after Crete was evacuated by the allies. 521 Greek Egyptians eligible for conscription (aged 19 and above) were also drafted into Navy service, and 612 into Air Force service.
On July 15, 1,249 all ranks from the 'Evros Brigade' supplemented the Phalanx; the men were held until then in Turkey (the Greek Evros Brigade crossed the border to Turkey in order to evade captivity, four days after the Germans invaded, on April 10) but with intense Greek diplomatic and consular efforts, the Turkish authorities agreed to let them free on condition they would not stay in neutral Turkey. 170 gendarmes who managed to evade captivity on Crete and reach Egypt, and one battalion of Dedecanesian volunteers from the Italian-held Dodecanese islands, and other Greek islanders, also joined the Phalanx.
Following the Royal Degree that ordered the dissolving of the 'Phalanx of Greeks in Egypt' and the absorbing of its personnel into the Greek Brigade, the 5,471-strong unit comprised:
-HQ Company with 131 all ranks.
-Three Infantry Battalions of four companies each (1st Battalion with Greek Egyptians and evacuees from Crete under Μaj. Ioannis Sotiriou, 2nd Btn with ex-Evros Brigade troops under Μaj. Tryphon Triantafyllou, 3rd Btn with volunteers from the Greek islands under 1st Lt Ioannis Pilikas), in total 2,770 all ranks.
-One 868-strong Field Arty Regiment, with 24 Ordnance QF 25-pounder guns, and 12 Ordnance QF 2-pounder AT guns, under Col. Athanassios Daskarolis.
-Transport Coy, Mechanised Sq. with Universal Carrier light armoured tracked vehicles, MG Coy, Engineer Coy, Signals Section, Military Police Section, Field Hospital (in total, 1,702 all ranks).
The Brigade would see action in the Second Battle of El-Alamein.
[I Greek Brigade's patch emblem] i.imgur.com/F1OwnAJ.jpg
[Col. Katsotas (right) with Monty in Egypt] i.imgur.com/XDjc93d.jpg
@@apokos8871 Thanks, I corrected it
Αποστόλης Μ. My father was one of the Greeks from Alexandria who joined Greek Brigade within British Forces , he served with distinction. After that he return to Greece to become a communist partisan in Civil War....
@@alexantoniu5004 what happened to him after the civil war? Was he exiled to the soviet union or any of its puppet states?
kr0k0deilos yes , he eventually end up in Poland with many others for a long time. Was able to comeback to Greece only during socialist government of Papandreou
As a proud member of the Time Ghost Army, I appreciate all that you and your team do!
Yep, horses not panzers. Always have been
Another foot note. Besides fodder all those horses mean lots of veterinarians and farriers. Both harder to train than mechanics.
The poor horses on all sides suffered tremendously in this war. There are some heart breaking accounts in Max Hasting’s “Inferno”.
I can't believe the title wasn't: "This week, the door kicks back"
Amazing title
Herman Goering was asked after the German surrender why they did not use poison gas in combat, especially at the end. He replied, "The horses." He explained that the German army was critically dependent on horse drawn artillery and logistical support. The Germans were not able devise an effective gas mask for their horses. They had gas masks that could protect the horses, but the horses would not pull, or would even sit down when wearing the gas masks, making them useless.
Due to the uncertainties of using gas, such as wind shifts, the risk was too great.
“You have horses! What were you thinking!?” -Don Malarkey
Wasn't Webster who said that?
I recall that being Webster too.
I keep thinking about that line...
It’s only mid 1941 and it seems like things are already going disastrously for the Germans in the USSR, I’m genuinely intrigued now as to how the hell this war is going to keep grinding on for another 4 years
The Axis still has a very big industrial base, that's how it manages to continue the war, also the UK is still alone in western Europe. The biggest problems for the Axis are the shortage of fuel and food and the British (and later US) air attacks.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Yet, if you read Overy's "Why the Allies Won", you find that the Nazis make poor use of this industrial base. Indeed, having taken France, they dismantled many of the French factories, transported them to Germany, and never reassembled them. Their war production was far more wasteful of resources than their opponents. In addition, they never "ramped up" their production of war materiele until 1943. The Luftwaffe didn't really increase in size from 1940-1942, nor did the size of their panzer forces. Indeed, to increase the number of panzer divisions they actually reduced the number of tanks in the current divisions and used the tanks thus obtained to equip the new divisions. Indeed, Overy points to the time frame of 1940-1941 as when Germany really started to lose the war from a production standpoint.
@@nicholasconder4703 Yes, you are correct.
I appeal for a special episode about the defenders of Brest whose struggle was more than remarkable
That would be great if they made an episode about this. 👍
Or maybe about Red Army 'last stands' in general during the first months of the war? Could be interesting to see examples that went against the general narrative of the Soviets getting pushed back in a huge German wave without much stopping them - although the weekly episodes are doing a great job of shattering that myth all on their own right now.
I started watching this series from the start about two months ago and now i have finally caught up to the newest episode. It has been very interesting to watch and i just wanted to thank you guys for all your hard work!
My Little Warhorse: Friendship is Heat Exhaustion
So much suffering for soldiers, civilians, and animals alike.
War is hell.
Always was; always will be.
"...and you cannot refine it..." W. T. Sherman
On July 22, 1941 general Dmitry Pavlov, who commanded the Soviet western front, was deprived of military rank and shot for "failure to perform his duties" (he basically disastrously lost the battle of Bialystok-Minsk). Pavlov was a military theorist and a decent tank brigade commander during the Spanish civil war. Still, in February 1941 he was promoted to the second-highest military rank (general of the army) and was made the commander of the Byelorussian military district (army group). Сommanding a brigade and commanding a whole army group are two different things. It's like running a small BBQ joint and then suddenly being promoted to the CEO of McDonald's; of course, you will "fail to perform your duties". This is the direct consequence of military purges, and Pavlov is just one example. Imagine how many capable soviet officers were accused of inadequate performance, stripped of military rank, and even shot only because they were made to command a much larger military unit than they could... Feel kind of bad for them.
I feel like ever since I started reading about Barbarossa since I was a kid most of the books made it sound like that the first few months were a total walkover for Germany. The last few weeks have shown that this was not the case at all. I love having previous long held notions challenged.
One advantage Japan has though is that they don't have to worry about China launching an invasion of their country, if Germany doesn't win they will be invaded by the Soviet Union.
Nuclear Weapons: allow us to introduce ourselves
@@oLii96x i mean its 1940 and those weapons are still being made.it might take a tong time for them to be there but if they were made they could greatly change the tide of war
edit: i meant 1941
I've never considered that before, and how it might have affected Japan's strategic thinking. Even if they didn't have the natural defense of being an island nation, China was so disorganized and divided throughout the war that there was no chance they'd be able to threaten the home islands. I wonder if Japan would have made different choices if they had to leave a larger portion of their army and navy in Japan for defense, if they would have even tried to launch an attack on the US if it meant risking their homeland getting hit from the other direction.
What are you talking about, WE CAN'tr PREDICT THE WAR. The manhattan project may very well be a failure
@@Rasmusnilsenbie what's a Manhattan Project?
My grandmother was in Normandy in the months that followed the battle, around the Falaise pocket. The strongest thing she remembers was the smell of dead german horses everywhere. Worst of all, the horses were all bloated and attempting to move them would result in dismembering the carcass and making the smell situation worse.
I remember reading about an allied commander who surveyed the area in this period in an observation plane, and he actually had to gain altitude to escape the stench, with clouds of flies everywhere over that area.
Jeez. Thats a very interesting tidbit
The myth about the German army being highly mechanized is just that -- a myth. Especially early in the war, it was little more than a post-WWI army in many respects. The early success the Germans had was because of successful tactics used by its small mechanized units, used in tandem -- a lesson largely learned from the allies' successful, integrated approach to offensive tactics used in 1918.
Facts. It was closer to a Napoleonic army than to what the Americans or even Soviets would deploy. The latter of course thanks to the absurd quantities of lend lease Studebaker and Chevy trucks
Germany had no victories agasint the allies, the allies simply failed.
Well u r incorrect if u believe German Army learned Combined Arms Tactics from Allied 1918 Offensive. In fact it can be said that it was the Allies who Copied the German Combined Arms Operation.
It was The Germans who built & operated the First Attack Bombers specifically built to Support Advancing Infantry in ww1.
Operation Michael was Perhaps the First Combined Arms Offensive & funfact it happened way before the Allied Offensive of 1918.
@@nancyallen5843 operation Micheal happened in 1918 the battle of Cambrai happened in 1917 which was the first use of combined arms
Despite knowing the outcome, I'm finding myself strangely thrilled at the unexpected ferocity of Soviet resistance. The first signs of even more astonishing resistance that would ultimately be the undoing of fascism. Those men and women from Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, Central Asia, who took an obscene amount of punishment but never rested from their fight until the red flag flew over the smoking ruins of Naziism.
@@Armo1997 Yeah. Count the numbers when you're fighting for survival against a genocidal enemy. I hope I'm never on your side in such a conflic.
@@thecaveofthedead But you see, if we kill a lot of civilians and starve all our prisoners we can make our number look bigger, and that will make small pipis of our supposed teutonic descendants a bit bigger after we get reamed by a bunch of workers and peasants. It is a FLAWELESS PLAN. They will just be able to say: "Look at our numbers" and since they would be bigger we'll win.
@@Armo1997 You are so far from the truth, my grandfather, his younger brother and their cousin all fought in WW2, they were all anti-communists, it didn't matter, they didn't fight for Stalin or Bolshevism, they fought for their motherland, their children, their wives, their homes, their friends and their very right to exist. What do you think if a foreign power attacked Armenia would the Armenians fight for their president/government/parliament/democracy or fight for the same things I listed above?
As for the soviet losses on the front.... Yes Stalin's incompetence buried a lot of good men :(
@@Blazo_Djurovic Yep. At the end of the day, for all their strutting and their militarism, people came from the factories and the farms and put them down like vermin. The new fascists strutting about with their guns impressed with how hard they are should reflect on that.
2:15 It looks like the Japanese are slowly showing their moves and ambitions upon the Southern lands with the occupation of Southern French Indochina. That will make their aircraft easily come within reach of British Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. I do hope the British have a strategy against this should the Japanese attack. It seems they are sending ships and convoys to the Soviet Union and Malta but no news of any ships or support to Fortress Singapore in support of the Singapore Strategy yet...
Nah....The Japanese cannot possibly have aircraft that have range to fly from French Indo China to British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. They've got to come from some aircraft carriers...
As long as they are dumb enough to antagonize the US. Right now the US is distracted with Europe. And you won't catch the US napping like it was some sort of holiday weekend!
Dont worry they will do the develop singnapore focus soon
Bah! I am confident Singapore is safe as it has the unmatched coastal fortress never seen before and natural ditch formations of its north provides ample fortification which makes a land invasion out of question. Maybe sporadic air raids kinda annoying but yeah.
@@skalderman I do think you are overconfident there, old chap. Our army is rather busy at the momment, so if the wily little orientals attack then the Royal Navy may have to detach a battleship or two to the Far East to deal with them ...
Talk more about the continuation war, I'm interested.
Watch Tuntematon Sotilas/The Unknown Soldier.
@@The.Smiggle Indeed i have already, Great movie
@@The.Smiggle
I watched those movies some years ago and I concur: great movies.
I seriously hope there will be a proper rundown of the offensive phase at some point when things get really moving. So far there has been nothing more about it than Finns declaring a state of war and last week like one sentence about an attack. In this weeks maps it seems that the Finns have again gained some ground, but this wasn't even mentioned. It's only a few months until the whole front quiets down for a couple years anyway.
I think Indy will summarise the Finnish offensive phase at some point. Let's be honest. Most action during Operation Barbarosa was down South of the Finnish front. We will get the spotlight again for sometime in the Summer 1944 : *Largest battles at the Finnish front were fought in Summer of 1944.* in Finnish Karelia.
I enjoy for subtitles in italian, this part of story is too interesting and i can understand all that you tell in every single detail, in italian there is not a channel which this who tell's about second world war in every single particulary and in all the world contemporaly, complimenti.
The Blitzkrieg we knew: tanks rolling on vast plains,every infantry divisions are motorized using mainly halftracks,trucks or cars with air support constantly outflanking the enemy along with good logistics and supply lines
The Blitzkreig during WW2: overextended supply lines,tanks and motorized infantry constantly outpacing those riding on horses, pocket of resistance being left during the intial attacks which pose problems when not dealt earlier. It also has air support but was stripped in numbers during the invasion of Britain err USSR I MEAN straining them during Barbarossa and not every unit is motorized.
You mean the German newsreels lied to us?
The Blitzkrieg was like that in France in 1940, but the eastern front was a much bigger and less-well-paved theater. Way too much Krieg, not enough Blitz to go around.
@@Raskolnikov70 yeah,i have heard about it,which makes sense,doing what they did in France is hard,when most of the Soviet roads are not paved
Realistically speaking, there was no real unified, from-the-top Blitzkrieg doctrine. France was essentially the fluke that proved a number of theories from the 1930's. The main problem was that beyond that the Germans never had to conquer an area as large as that until they turned their sights to the Soviet Union. The reason things worked out in North Africa was essentially because Rommel was incredibly insubordinate and was more or less let off as long as he was successful. Once the Germans came to the Soviet Union they just went overboard with the whole idea and forgot what the real point of "Blitzkrieg" was - namely the focus of overwhelming force on one Schwerpunkt - and assumed that because the Slavic peoples were considered inferior, they would offer even less resistance than the French. The division level commanders acting out of their own initiative and Zeitzler preparing the most efficient logistics plan he could under the circumstances are some of the few reasons the campaign in France and the low countries worked as well as it did and even then, by the time they reached the Atlantic coast most of the units were short of spare parts, fuel and ammo.
As an operation plan, Fall Barbarossa was basically fucked from jump street. German high command and the Nazi party were just too blind to see it and too stubbornly tied to ideology to admit it.
TV and movie "realism" we are all raised, by vs dirty, gritty and messed up reality.
Of all my TH-cam subscriptions this channels videos are the ones I look forward to the most.
Karl's pretty frightening, wouldn't want to see him flying towards me.
Karl seriously needs to take a chill pill.
Just wait for Gustav to appear...
@@samuelgordino and don't forget about Dora while we're at it.
@@TheCimbrianBull If the Russians had air superiority and good aerial recon, Karl, Gustav, and Dora wouldn't be around for very long.
@@dpeasehead true
It’s crazy that I’ve been watching this channel for almost 2 years, and it’s crazy that I’m going to be watching this channel for another 4 years
Thanks for another great episode!
P.S. I was already afraid that you would forget to mention the defense of the Brest Fortress, but today it finally happened.
P.P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Your English is good, don't worry :)
Your English here looks good to me.
Don't you mean PPSh? 😁
There is a good Russian movie about the defense of Brest Fortress. Its called Fortress Of War
Yes, it's pretty good. There is at least one good clip from it on TH-cam.
It is a very Good film
Where can I watch the film?
It's really called "Fortress of War"? That's the dumbest unironic movie title I've ever heard.
Agreed a really good film.
I've visited the Brest Fortress a few times. The building where the "Treaty of Brest-Litvoskt" was signed was bombed, a church was rebuilt, seeing the areas where the soviet snipers were stations was interesting, and standing on the west bridge (an iconic scene) was a bit surreal as you stand their thinking "Germans and soviets fought right here over 70 yrs ago".
I'm reminded of Webster's speech in Band of Brothers: "Say 'Hello' to Ford! And General F-ing Motors! You stupid f-st Pigs! Look at you! You have horses!! What were you thinking?!"
I love how he mentioned the great war series
Intro is wonderful. Not only does it reference Indy's previous project, but it also adds to the Indy lore. Considering that Indy has barely aged between 1914-1941, we can assume that either he is a time traveler or has obtained the Cup of the Holy Grail.
4/5
You guys are right when you say that the episodes are getting better and better
i have read much of WW2 and knew Russia was not mechanized. But did not realize how dependent the Germans were on horses until these recent episodes.
Indeed. I'm pretty sure that in 39-40 or maybe even until 41 that Britain was actually the most mechanized of them all
The phot of Conrad von Hotzendorff hanging in the background was a nice touch.Normally we hear of Great German advances into the plains of the Soviet Union when you watch history documentaries. It seems to be much more of a poorly thought out road trip with high explosives. Great work guys!
Shouldn't be that hard to conquer the Soviet Union. I mean I did it twice in Hoi4. You just need all of Europe, capitulate all of the allies, make sure the US isn't at war with you, and tons of plans. Also just encircle all their troops and you can literally drive to Moscow with no trouble at all.(By the way I also had nukes and 400 divisions)
Dude can't even beat the Soviets before 1943 smh
No need to capitulate all of the allies, just capitulate Poland and go straight into Moscow. Hitler was a fucking noob
@Super Jono, That is what Hitler and the Japanses thought that the war is like what in HOI4. But what is happening in game is not happening in real life.
Please do an episode about the Brest fortress. Those people deserve to be remembered as much as those who defended the Alamo. Remember Brest.
100 weeks? These wars grow up so fast!
And before you notice anything they've moved out of the house and into the world.
Indy: Hitler wants to go One Direction
Harry Styles: *leaves the chat*
Harry styles leaves the Dunkirk
It is Indy honouring their 10th anniversary this week.
Indy failed an audition to join.
"At least horses is good eatin"
-A wise man, looking at the bright side.
You guys should do a special episode where you show the behind the scene making of an episode so everyone can see how much work goes into these video as i know there is a good amount of team work making these excellent videos are possible! Just an idea
Did you cover how diplomatic relations between the UK and Soviets governments were repaired after the invasion of the latter? In this video you mention how Stalin requested the Royal Navy attack northern Norway but when did the UK start caring? Was it immediately after Barbarossa? What's the story there? TIA!
Churchill made a speech right after Operation Barbarossa started on 22 June 1941 , he made no denails his past conflict and opposition against Soviet Union and Bolshevism but summarised all these are past events and unimportant now because they have a common enemy to fight that which if unchecked , intents to conquer all of us. And promised all aid as much as possible made to Soviet Union materially and attacks from West to divert German military resopurces and attention. From then , the relations between UK and Soviet Union began to grow , On 13th July 1941 in UK , Soviet Ambassador Maisky and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden signed an Friendship and Mutual Cooperation Aid Agreement in London. Three days later a British military mission went to Moscow to inspect the situation in Eastern Front in first hand and to determine Russian needs in materiel (Russians were initially very uncooperative though) On 18th July a similar Friendship and Mutual Aid Agreement signed in Moscow by British Ambassador Sir Stafford Cripps and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov.
@@merdiolu “If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.” W. S. Churchill
@@merdiolu At some point, either this year or 1942, Molotov made a rather daring high altitude flight right across Axis Europe in a Soviet transport plane to England.
Love the content
Thank you so much for watching!
When Indy said at 11:00, an ad started for me, so I heard:
"The soviets will have New supplies, HELL ENERGY COFFEE"
That's some epic timing.
lol,coffee supplies,Soviet soldiers preferred Vodka,there is a saying that goes"the Soviet soldier can be deprived of food and most essential things,but without Vodka,they refuse to fight",don't know to what strength that is true though.
the germans have choc-ka-cola th-cam.com/video/hmdLnPGZ0Rc/w-d-xo.html
World War II was won with British intelligence, American steel, and Russian HELL ENERGY COFFEE
Four straight months in my house things like this show are what’s gets me thru I appreciate it so much
Hi, I’ve been enjoying your coverage of Operation Barbarossa. I notice that one of your sources is David Glantz. I really like his books too. He does go into depth, though, into areas that you have mentioned in passing but not covered in detail yet, and I wonder if you will.
Things like the relocation of the factories from the west of the Soviet Union into its interior. This is taken from Glantz, maybe you can use it somewhere if you talk about it: “Prior to the German invasion, the vast majority of Soviet manufacturing capacity was located in the western portion of the country, particularly major industrial areas such as Leningrad and the Eastern Ukraine. As early as June 24th, the GKO created a council for evacuation to relocate these plants eastward to the Urals and Siberia. The task of coordinating this massive undertaking fell to N.A. Voznesensky. The Council’s Deputy Chairman, the future Premier A.N. Kosygin, controlled the actual evacuation.
Voznesensky and Kosygin had to do more than simply move factories and workers, however. In the centrally directed Soviet economy, nothing would happen without careful advance planning to ensure that these factories would mesh with existing plants and raw material supplies in the new locations. Workers had to be housed and fed in remote towns whose populations tripled overnight. Electric plants had to keep operating until the last possible moment to facilitate dismantling in the old locations, then be moved and re-assembled at the new sites. All this had to be done at a point when the industrial sector was shifting gears to accommodate wartime demand and the periodic loss of skilled laborers to the Army.
The most pressing problem was the evacuation of the factories, especially in the lower Dnieper and Donbas regions of the Ukraine. The long lines of railroad cars massed in the region puzzled German reconnaissance aircraft. Eight thousand freight cars were used to move just one major metallurgy complex from Zaporozhe in the Donbas to Magnitogorsk in the Urals. The movement had to be accomplished at great speed and despite periodic German air raids on the factories and rail lines.
In the Leningrad area the German advance was so rapid that only 92 plants were relocated before the city was surrounded. More than 500 firms and 210,000 workers left the Moscow area in October and November alone. All this machinery arrived in remote locations on a confused, staggered schedule with only a portion of the skilled workforce. In total, 1,523 factories, including 1,360 related to armaments, were transferred to the Volga, Siberia, and Central Asia between July and November 1941. Almost 1.5 million freight cars were involved. Even allowing for the hyperbole so common to Soviet accounts, this massive relocation and reorganization of heavy industry was an incredible accomplishment of endurance and organization.
Your comments are always the best.
And in the background, 'good' ole Conrad is still haunting us!
9:46 He literally just kept going. Good luck stopping that guy.
Training charges. When my dad trained for WW2 he said they used m80s, over sized fire crackers/undersized dynamite charges to simulate explosion. They could still hurt you but they were detonated by remote control or you were in a marked lane which if you strayed from the sergeant would get very very annoyed about.
Great video
Zhukov in the picture they used looks a bit like comedian Greg Davies. I can't imagine him leading a massive army.
He was very competent, not given to drink, and absolutely ruthless. His was not a comedic role.
@@MarshallEubanks Also wasteful of troops and equipment. Some more modern historical works (Glantz in particular) indicate had a nasty tendency to beat his head against brick walls, repeatedly. He did this at Stalingrad, and crossing the Oder in 1945. At the latter battle Heinrici used this to his advantage during the Battle of Seelow Heights.
Have you thought of doing an episode on Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim? Or some kind of a special on the finnish continuation war?
m.th-cam.com/video/8aEVQwRpKIY/w-d-xo.html
It's almost as if invading the Soviet Union was a disastrous military blunder Nazi Germany was woefully unprepared for and utterly delusional about...
Add it to the long line of things they were delusional about.
As it is with most -isms (capitalism being an exception), the proponents were delusional. After all, it is their idea, it MUST be right. And, they'll shoot anyone who disagrees.
@magicblanket Actually, capitalism works because it panders to some of the WORST aspects of humanity, greed, avarice, the quest for power and domination. It does not aspire to greatness or panacea solutions to humanity's problems, just acquisition of wealth. Unlike other -isms, it tends to self-regulate. Sure, unchecked it lurches from peak to peak, tumbling into valleys of self-induced financial depressions and economic crises when its true disciples depart into realms of fantasy. However, unlike most other -isms, these negative impulses can be brought under control through law and regulation. It's adherents don't go on aimless murdering sprees (although the good case can be made that the suppression of the trade unions in the late 1800s and early 1900s does fit this category). It is also not centrally controlled, but tends to be an amorphous ideology that allows whose adherents also have different moral and ethical mindsets (some actually very ethical). I am NOT saying capitalism is great, all I am saying is that it does work after a fashion.
So pleased to see you using David Glantz as a source.
Indy: “People like Rob are making sure our horses are well fed and watered” Random Wehrmacht soldier: *laughs in sick and exhausted horses*
*YOU HAD HORSES! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!*
Maybe something like "horses were enough to win against France and the UK in the West, and the USSR is even weaker". Never forget, that Horses brought the Germans next to Moscow, to Leningrad and Stalingrad, and back to Germany as well. In the end it was the war of attrition which sealed the fate for the German aggression and madness. Not the use of horses.
xwormwood it’s a band of brothers reference
They needed the petrol for the panzers and Luftwaffe. After all, you don't need precious oil and gas to keep your horses moving. Check out TIKs videos on the German oil crisis.
2.75 million horses and mules in total throught the war.. and believed over 1million at a time for a time during... yeah thats a lot of horses people forget.. or are ignorant of how many horses and mules the Germans really used
As always a fantastic episode, Indy and team! I would like to make a small suggestion for Eastory's wonderful maps though. While the Germans have infantry divisions in white and armored ones in black, perhaps change the color of the armored Soviet ones to yellow or orange, rather than just slightly darker red than the usual infantry ones as they're not that clear on the map. No ill will with this comment, just thought it would be nicer. :)
Thanks!
I feel so bad for the horses :-(
Edit. 9:10 is there any story behind that pocket behind german lines? Im pretty sure there must be
The Siege of Mogilev. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mogilev
Could you do a WW2 special on Cavalry and mounted combat troops?
Keep making great content Indy! These videos really helped me a lot during Quarantine, I learn more and more history as you continue these! However I have a question, are you gonna do a Cold War Realtime too? Cuz that's like 45 years lmao
Weekly episodes rom 1945-1991? I don't think Indy has that many years left in him :/
Woot woot I'm earily this Saturday!! Love you Indy from Northern Michigan!!
just like in ww1 I feel so bad for the horse, dogs and pigeons who died in this war. And for cats and rabbits that will be used as test subjects for the Japanese.
Great channel with great content, always learning something new and interesting, thank you.
As much as I enjoy the series, it feels like there is a lack of Soviet sources, since almost everything is told from the german pov.
Russian archives are locked, thus it is impossible to obtain a Soviet pov.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Disagree It is harder to find Soviet sources but they could use more of them from Glantz, and various memoirs. and some of the modern Russian historians.
@@caryblack5985 I understand.
Yeah, I was quite surprised of the lack of disclosure that Glantz's works have, specially considering how it is the gateway to many non-western sources. His in depth work about smolensk comes to mind.
@@BAlvarM For really in-depth treatment of a subject, try reading Glantz's 5-part Trilogy on Stalingrad (no joke - it IS a trilogy in 5 books).
Reminds me of the Oregon Trail. In the Movies, TV shows the wagons are all being pulled by horses or mules.
In real life, oxen was perferred. In fact if a wagon showed up with horses or mules, they were told to trade them in for oxen.
The reason for this was simple, Oxen could thrive on the grasses on the plains, while that same grass would strave horses and mules.
Thus when wagon trains would start in the spring, the horse and mule trains would leave the oxen trains way behind, but within a month the oxen would catch up to those horse and mule trains, as the horses and mules started to die of starvation ( and could not be even used as food, they had loss so much fat and muscle by the time they died).
That seems to be the limit on heavy use of horses, mules, donkeys and their relatives. They all need better grain then oxen, bison, cattle and they relatives (and why horses were slowly becoming extinct in the wild just before man domesticated horses).
Four weeks of heavy use is the most you can get out of a horse or mule. They then needed a break to rebuild they muscles and fat reserves. Oxen could keep on going and while not shown in WWII Soviet Propaganda films, seems to have still be a means up hauling supplies for the Soviets, until replaced by American Trucks as Lead lease kicked in.
Just an observation that horses were good in WWII provided you did not use them for more then four weeks at a time. Oxen was still being used in Spain and Russia at that start of WWII, but most of Europe had switched to horses in the 1800s as Railroads replaced those long haul trips previously done by oxen.
Russia was just to large to conquored if you relied on horses to haul your supplies. You need oxen or trucks (or a very fast horse army that stayed no longer then three days in any one place, as did the Armies of the Mongols and Timerlane).
Long term marches of infrantry must be supported by Oxen or trucks, and the German Army of 1941 had neither.
Great, but the Soviet's condition would be also interesting to hear about. Surely they have extremly dire situations to deal with. What are the current objectives and operations there? I feel like this show tries too hard to bring the point across of the problems and issues with the Axis. It focus too much already on the outcome of the war, and explaining how Germany lost rather than being a neutral week to week like it used to be in The Great War which I much more preferred.
I think part of the problem with showing more of the soviet side is that many war documents and records that detailed how things were going day-to-day are still locked up and classified in Russia, meanwhile most or all of this sort of information is released from archives in Germany. This gives quite an axis-heavy discussion as there’s much more detail on the actions of the German generals, plans, losses, successes, etc.
All this could be wrong, but I seem to remember seeing a similar thing discussed a few weeks ago about how many questions about ww2 soviets could be answered or understood if they opened up their archives of documents form the war
@@mission101 Perhaps you are right. Even in that case, I think that should be more clearly communicated, and I am sure we know something about the Soviet side. Even if it is just by going by their actions.
Paul Verse I agree I love this channel and the Great War channel so much and the last few weeks have been pretty enlightening about how much trouble the axis had even at the start of Barbarossa. However I do also think there should be an attempt at how bad this is also going for the soviets I mean they’ve already losses half a million men just as prisoners loads of material and huge swathes of land. Indy mentioned in passing how Soviets aren’t able to keep up with losses but I feel like if I didn’t know the outcome or hadn’t read up on the Eastern front then I would think things are going well for the soviets but they aren’t. I still really love this channel though.
Gotta love the picture of our BOII Conrad in the background :)
9:48 that dude literally ran past an explosion and didn't even turn around. True bad ass. Probably didn't survive the war.
probably training charge. Used to acclimate recruits to loud noises
@@pedrolopez8057 I’m not sure about this footage but I’ve read most WW1 video footage was faked, away from the real action.
In reality it would have took a very brave or suicidal camera man to stand up outside the trenches and film
@@notmenotme614 In WWII it's a mixed bag. While most countries had combat photography and film units, lots of footage was filmed during training and after the battles too. Almost certainly that 9:48 clip is not real combat footage because the explosion is so small and the person continues to advance unscathed and unbothered like it was nothing. If a mortal shell, rifle grenade, anti-personnel mine or any other kind of explosive device designed to hurt people were to explode that close the blast wave alone would incapacitate the person - and then you have the shrapnel. Even anti-personnel mines create rather big-boom even though most of them are designed to severely wound rather kill the unfortunate person.
I already knew what the Carl mortar was going into this.
But what I always picture is like,
"The enemy is attacking!"
"Fear not! We have Carl!"
And it's just some big beefy methed up wermacht berserker.
"Who needs cars anyways."
-probably the wehrmacht.
Been following you since the first episode of WW1 Indi! LOVE the show!
19 July 1941 , British radio station BBC broadcasted about the "V Army", informing the general public on the resistance movements in occupied Europe
19th July 1941 , UK , Submarine HMS Umpire collided with a trawler off Kent, England, United Kingdom during her sea trials, sinking in 60 feet of water; 22 men were lost.
19 July 1941 North Sea , 11 RAF Blenheim bombers from Coastal Command attacked an eight ship German coastal convoy escorted by six anti-aircraft ships off the Hague, Netherlands, sinking four of the transports and damaging another.
19 July 1941 , Germany , Adolf Hitler ordered that American shipping were not to be attacked by German forces in order to keep the United States from fully entering the war.
19 July 1941 , Atlantic Ocean , German submarine U-66 sank transport Holmside northeast of Cape Verde islands at 1042 hours; 21 were killed, 16 survived.
19 July 1941 , Gulf of Finland , Soviet destroyer Serdityl was bombed and sunk by a German JU-88 bomber
19 July 1941 , Fiji , Fijian ship Viti departed Suva, Fiji for Gilbert and Ellice Islands with New Zealand military servicemen aboard; she was to drop off small reconnaissance parties on many of the atolls and small islands to act as lookouts, or "coastwatchers", to watch for German surface raiders.
19 July 1941 , Germany , Adolf Hitler ordered the German 2nd Panzer Group to move south toward Kiev, Ukraine as soon as the group completed the conquest of Smolensk, Russia. Heinz Guderian, commanding officer of the 2nd Panzer Group, protested and cited Moscow, Russia as the logical primary target, but Hitler would overrule him.
19 July 1941 , Moscow , Joseph Stalin declared himself the Soviet Defense Commissar (NKO). Viktor Abakumov officially assumed the role as the head of UOO of the Soviet NKVD
19 July 1941 , Baltics , Heavy fighting between German and Soviet forces took place near Lake Peipus near Leningrad, Russia.
19 July 1941 , London , Winston Churchill decided to share military intelligence gained by deciphering the German Enigma-encoded messages with the Soviets, but the Soviets would not be told how the intelligence was gained; instead, they were told that the intelligence was gained through a spies in Berlin.
19 July 1941 , Lithuania , SS Eisatzgruppen Task Force A complate execution of 5.000 Jews in smal groups outaside Vilnius and bury them into pits
20 July 1941 , Moscow , USSR , The Soviet Union resumed diplomatic relations with the countries occupied by Germany
20 July 1941 , Six RAF Blenheim bombers from Coastal Command damaged a German tanker off Le Touquet, France with three high explosive bombs and several incendiary bombs, forcing the ship to beach near Berck-sur-Mer to prevent sinking. Two British aircraft and one German Bf 109 fighter were shot down.
20 July 1941 , Mediterranean Sea , Italian torpedo boat Circe sank Royal Navy submarine HMS Union with depth charges southwest of the Italian island of Pantellaria between Sicily and Tunisia.
20 July 1941 , Russia , Soviet destroyer Stremitel'ny was sunk by German aircraft in Kolafjord north of Murmansk, Russia.
20 July 1941 , Leningrad USSR , A trainload of treasures from the Hermitage was sent to safety, to the Ural city of Sverdlovsk. That day, from the Polotsk-Vitebsk area, less than a month earlier Russia’s first line of defence, now behind the lines, a German infantry division assigned to comb the Polotsk-Vitebsk-Nevel triangle, described the area as a ‘partisan region’, and reported that the roads were being mined every day.
20 July 1941 , North Sea , First British naval vessel, a minelayer, crossed the North Sea on its way to the Soviet Arctic port of Archangel with military supplies.
21 July 1941 , Baltic Sea , German submarine U-140 sank the 161-ton Soviet submarine M94 by torpedoes in the Baltic Sea. The survivors were rescued by M98 operating nearby off Hiiumaa Island
21 July 1941 , Japan secured an agreement from the Vichy-French government to permit a virtual Japanese occupation of Indo-China.
21 July 1941 , Gibraltar , The Allied convoy "Substance" departed Gibraltar to supply Malta; it contains six transports, carrier HMS Ark Royal, battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Nelson, several cruisers, and six destroyers.
21 July 1941 , Moscow , USSR , 195 German Luftwaffe bombers, most of which were He 111 bombers, took off from an airfield near Smolensk, Russia to attack the Soviet capital of Moscow in multiple waves during the night; the resulting air alarms were the first to be sounded in the city. Moscow had strong anti-aircraft defences, the city was protected by 170 fighters, and the citizens were able to take shelter in the newly completed underground railway stations, but German air crews reported the presence of very few Soviet fighters after sunset. German records showed six bombers failing to return.
Watching the city’s anti-aircraft defences in action, the Western journalist Alexander Werth noted ‘a fantastic piece of fireworks-tracer bullets, and flares, and flaming onions, and all sorts of rockets, white and green and red; and the din was terrific; never saw anything like it in London’. There was a second raid on the following night.
21 July 1941 , Ukraine , Soviet troops evacuated from the positions along the Dniestr River in western Ukraine.
21 July 1941 , London , UK , Hugh Dalton informed Winston Churchill that his Special Operations Executive (SOE) was now ready to support covert operations in German-occupied Europe
21 July 1941 , North Sea , German cargo ship Hans Christophersen struck a mine and sunk off Netherlands
21 July 1941 , Narvik , Norway , German troop transport ship Wandsbeck was bombed and sunk by RAF bombers
21 July 1941 , Washington , USA , President Franklin Roosevelt asked the United States Congress to modify the Selective Service Act, increasing the period of service from one year of active service to also include 30 months in reserve.
@@merdiolu Where do you get all these facts from?
@@greeniedi6287 I have library only about World War II and online resorces like world war 2 database
i never even knew any of this keep up the great work
From what Indy was saying 2-3 weeks ago, the Italians should be arriving anytime soon, so that will get the axis advance moving again, won't it?
LOL 🤣 😅 🤣
They can't or won't fight the Royal navy let alone help the Wehrmacht.
9:47 can we talk about how this guy kept running when an explosion happened right next to him, kind of a bad ass.
Hi to Dunkin, Hans and Stanislav 😄
I finally got to the end and realized what you meant to say
Hans, get ze Éclair!
Dankeschön for explaining this part of our history!!! Liebe grüße Alex 🤘🏻
Please keep up your great work!!!
In all fairness to the OKW: Who would have thought that the Russians would so vehemently object to being displaced, enslaved, and murdered?
So informative. Thank you for making these!
Horses in Middle Age: carring a knight in full armour, kicking, biting, charging at lances.
Horses in WW2: nyyyy it's to harshy and sandy
Well big European horses needed for that needed a LOT of high quality food to be sustained. Which could be done in Europe due to much shorter distances involved. But in Asia that is not the case, hence different type of horse was used.
@@Blazo_Djurovic During the middle ages only steppe cultures and their warriors regularly moved fighting horses by land over great distances without killing most of them in the process.
Beautiful reference to The Great War at the beginning. Keep up the amazing work :)