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Thank you genuinely for covering this battle Simon. Plus not to mention the irony of Not even 2 hours before this was posted I was asking animation channels that make history content to cover this exact battle because I saw a channel called wendigoon cover this battle a while ago , one of those channels being yarnhub and the other being simple history . This battle in my opinion has the same effect as the Christmas event that happened in world war 1 where the British and Germans we're able to enjoy a Christmas together For a portion of all of them it was their last .
Hey Simon! Since you are CLEARLY ASHAMED OF THE WHITE RACE... I was just wondering when you were planning to move from the Czech Republc to your VERY FIRST HOME IN A MAJORITY NON-WHITE COUNTRY??????? OR are you an IGNORANT HYPOCRITE?
Carl Sagan remarked how silly it looked when we landed on the Moon and declared "we came in peace" to a lifeless rock, all the while conducting a war in Vietnam. It would be absurd if anyone had nuked the Moon and later declared peace to it!
One of the best military operations was Operation Outward - it used cheap, simple balloons filled with hydrogen and carrying either a trailing steel wire to damage high voltage power lines by producing a short circuit, or incendiary devices to start fires, using the prevailing wind to send these deep into the Third Reich. As cheap as effective - and almost completely forgotten about.
I think I've read about this one. There were also the operations where fake tanks, planes, and other fake weaponry was made and set up to trick the Axis powers into useless bombing raids or just to make them think Allied numbers were greater than they actually were in a given area. Surprised that didn't make this list, but they've probably done a video about it in some other list.
Yes it did , the British did a similar thing in France . the wind changed direction blowing the balloons back to England . Where one, was found by children killing them.
One tiny operation that I read about was, Operation Stormtrooper. During the Korean War, a US Special Forces officer found a depot in Seoul full of Waffen SS uniforms, gear, and weapons. Why it was there we don't know. The officer had an idea. He went to his buddy who was planning an upcoming infiltration mission and convinced him to put the gear into use. In the night a fourteen men jumped in North Korea dressed head to toe in Waffen SS gear. They captured a dozen very confused North Koreans and got out via swift boats without a single casualty. According to author Ed Evanhoe, a Soviet ambassador handed the West German ambassador a formal complaint, charging German troops were operating in Korea. There's no record as to the German ambassadors response.
I'm guessing the German ambassador was far too busy trying to figure out how the World Almanac recorded an INCREASE IN THE EUROPEAN JEWISH POPULATION during WW2 if "6 million" were exterminated like diseased vermin...
I don't think anything sums up the sheer insanity of the Cold War better than the nuke the moon project. In addition to everything Simon mentioned, it was later revealed that *the Soviets also considered nuking the moon.* It's seriously a miracle that we made it out of the 20th century. They were so committed to one-upmanship that they had to match or eclipse all of each other's moves, even when those moves were *colossally stupid.* It'd be hilarious if it wasn't all so existentially terrifying.
You missed the coolest part of mincemeat, to see if the letters had been read they fold them only once. When the letter where returned they looked at them under a microscope and could see multiple folds.
It pales IMHO against the other event when Wehrmacht and US Army fought side-by-side. Look up "Operation Cowboy". And this actually was (loosely based upon) made into a Disney movie: "Miracle of the White Stallions", 1963.
Don't forget OPERATION COWBOY on April 25th, 1945 where the collaboration of Wehrmacht and US Forces (commanded by General George Patten), saved hundreds of LIPIZZANER horses from the advancing Soviet army who where likely to to feed them to their starving troops. Operation Cowboy was fought in the Czechoslovakian village of Hostau (now Hostouň), in the last days of fighting in the European Theater of World War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of the Wehrmacht fought side by side against the Waffen-SS - the other being the Battle of Castle Itter in Austria. The Background After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, the Lipizzaner Breeding Mares of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna were transferred to an experimental farm in the village of Hostau, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The goal was to create a race of "Aryan horses". The head of the Spanish Riding School, Alois Podhajsky, was a famed German horseman and dressage expert, and had been a bronze medallist at the 1936 Olympics. He had also been an Austrian Army officer, and by 1938 he had been enrolled in the Wehrmacht with the rank of Major. In the final phases of World War II, Hostau was on the advancing path of the Soviet Red Army from the East, and the German soldiers in the farm were unenthusiastic about surrendering to the Russians. On the other side, to the West, the XII Corps of the American Third Army were also advancing toward the farm, commanded by General George Patton, racing with the Soviets for the liberation of the capital city Prague. German veterinarians at the farm, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudofsky, were scared about what the Russians could do to their horses, as during the liberation of Hungary they had already killed the whole Royal Hungarian Lipizzaner collection. Then Luftwaffe intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Walter Holters, not part of the farm personnel but forced there due to fuel shortage, tried to arrange an agreement with the advancing US troops. Holters, a General Staff Officer, was senior to Rudofsky but they agreed about the goal of saving the precious horses, and a contact was made with the nearest U.S, unit in the area, the 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (of the 2nd Cavalry Group). The 2nd CG was famous for its daring deep strikes and was famed between German troops as "Ghosts of Patton's Army". Yet in spite of being a mechanized unit, many of the officers of the Group were horsemen and had served in mounted units before the mechanization, so they immediately planned a rescue operation. Furthermore, it seems that there was a meeting between Patton and Podhajsky, about a rescue operation of the horses, and for a source, the meeting between Holters and Colonel Reed was not casual, but planned before 26 April. The operation was not simple for a series of factors. First, German troops at the Czech border were not part of the agreement and would likely oppose the American troops entering the area. Second, many of the hundreds of horses were pregnant and most of the rest had just given birth. Finally, Czechoslovakia had been posted in the Soviet area of influence during the Yalta Conference and the advancing Red Army would likely not have agreed with the operation, had they reached the farm in time. General Patton, who agreed to the operation, gave orders to quickly create a task force, but available troops were scarce. Assigned were two small cavalry reconnaissance troops with M8 scout cars, some M8 Howitzer Motor Carriages and two M24 Chaffee light tanks and a screening infantry force of 325 men - the task force being command by Major Robert P. Andrews. The path was 20 miles long, into still German-occupied territory with thousands of German troops, including two understrength armoured divisions - among them being the 11th Panzer Division that a few days later would surrender at Passau. After having passed German defences at the border, with the help of an artillery barrage by the XII Corps, Andrews secured the farm but was then confronted with the task of evacuating the horses. As the horses outnumbered the men in the task force, Andrews enrolled many freed Allied POWs - British, New Zealanders, French, Poles and Serbs. Furthermore, he even gave arms to the captured German soldiers of the Heer and Luftwaffe. Finally he accepted the help of a Russian anti-communist Cossack Prince Amassov, who led a small force of Cossack cavalry that had deserted the German 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. After arriving at the farm Colonel Reed looked for vehicles to move the pregnant horses and new-born foals. Meanwhile Major Andrews turned over the task force to his deputy, Captain Thomas M. Stewart. Before being able to evacuate the farm, this composite force was attacked twice by Waffen-SS infantry, both being repelled with some dead and injured. The SS unit suffered more losses and eventually retreated. Immediately afterwards, Stewart managed to evacuate the horses, some mounted and the rest being herded, just before the first Soviet T-34 tanks appeared in sight. The Soviets avoided any confrontation and the operation was concluded when all the horses were loaded into trucks near the border and secured behind American lines. Bizarre or what...
My late father served in the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command during the Cold War. He and his fellow airman got to see the DEFCON increase to DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He described it as "interesting."
Your father either had a talent for understatement, nerves of steel or perhaps even both? Either way, it must have been a privilege to hear stories about the Cuban Missile Crisis from the horse's mouth 😎
They do exist today and are available in the marketplace, and they are indeed valuable if in good condition - a few hundred dollars for a nice example. Since they are valuable, forgeries exist of those stamps, too, and one needs to be careful before buying one. There were many similar examples of forged stamps used by both sides, all of them being fairly scarce and valuable today. They are not so rare that they are impossible to find, though - if you had the money, you could likely find some available examples for sale right now.
At this point in my life I have seen a ton of documentaries about WWII (Simon also played his part) This is the first time I hear for the battle of Castle Itter. Even if it was a small battle in the grand scheme of things, I think it deserves more public awareness just because of it's unique attributes! Today I can say I learn something new! Bravo!
The idea of nuking the moon wasn't even entirely original at the time. A similar idea (involving a powerful electric bomb rather than a nuke being sent to explode on the moon) was a central part of a plot in the syfy novel "What Mad Universe?" by Fredric Brown back in 1949. It was an idea that - in the context of the novel at least - didn't seem questionable at all.
In the album "The Last Stand" by the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton, the song "The Last Battle" is about the Battle of Castle Itter. The board game Castle Itter: The Strangest Battle of WWII is about the Battle of Castle Itter.
Interesting note that at 20:42 you see the victorious defenders of the castle flying a Texas state flag. Makes you wonder, did someone remember the Alamo?
My little brother was 2 years old, and I was already a veteran of early "Atomic Drills" which became "Duck&Cover". I wondered then if this would go on all my life. And sadly, in a way it has.
@@sherylcascadden4988 I think what hapenned was a small backward child (probably due to inbreeding) couldn' action speak their own name correctly and came out with "Chumley". It must have stuck (maybe they wer all backward inbreds !! )
"Beep, beep! Boop, boop! Hello dere! Sputnik races giggling 'cross the sky. Red hands, red faces, join in the race as The space age begins with a surprise!" "Surprise" by Leslie Fish
@@captainspaulding5963 I'm not really sure what Simons channel arrangement is but he presented a video about castle Itter over on the Geographics channel
"And its the end of the line of the final journey enemies leaving the past. And its American troops and the German army joining together at last". -sabaton- the last battle.
Growing up during the Cold War was weird. In the '90s we never really expected anything to happen, but there was always the thought in the back of your mind that the only thing "keeping the peace" was the fact that one country could destroy the planet ten times over while the other one could destroy it 100 times over. You just had to trust that no one was dumb enough to push the button first.
I was talking to someone recently about the ethics of the US dropping the nukes during WW2. We eventually landed on "yeah, probably a war crime, BUT... the only reason no one has used a nuclear weapon in war since August of 1945 is *because* they were used in August of 1945." Let's say the bombs aren't ready in time, let's say Japan surrenders anyway after the Russians invaded Manchuria, it's easy to imagine an alternate world where the US never uses the bombs, then the world enters into a Cold War with everyone having much more itchy trigger fingers. Kind of a scary thought.
Ha, I just asked if Simon would cover Operation Mincemeat, and here it is. Pretty amazing story. It's also dramatized in a Netflix movie by the same name.
first seriously proposed by scientist Jack Reed back in the late 1950's, misunderstandings about radiation & TDS have killed the possibility of it ever seriously being considered. that, and predicting the outcome was thought to be nearly impossible.
Operation Mincemeat was incredible! Pronunciation made me giggle though - these are closer: Glyndwr = GLIN-dower Cholmondeley = Chumley (no idea why, it just is !)
If you nuke the Moon, you would have to do it in the shadow or nobody would see the pinprick of light. And rather than inspiring awe and fear in the world's population, they would be asking, "Is that it?"
1) Cholmondeley is pronounced as 'Chumley' 2) Glyndwr is pronounced as 'glin-doo-er' 3) There was a plan in WWII to arm icebergs as unsinkable battleships.
I too thought Project Habakkuk should have been on this list. Man-made icebergs full of sawdust, madness. Though since it never got past development, I guess it doesn't qualify as an operation.
Operation Mincemeat also involved an Aston Martin race car driver turned MI5 agent. He drove the body down to the submarine in his Aston Martin. Very bond.
He was driving a delivery van (it's in the photo in the video here), but as though it was a race car. I can't imagine what it must have been like travelling from London to Scotland at night in a blacked-out van being driven by a lunatic while sitting next to a very dead corpse. Ian Fleming worked in the office that came up with Operation Mincemeat.
@@lukedaniel7669oh my bad. You are indeed correct! I grew up near Gaydon (where AM is based) and locals love to tell the story haha. I guess they embellish a bit :)
Got an idea for another episode 'History's 5 Most Craziest Animal Usage'; 1. The American Bat Bomb 2. The Soviet Anti-Tank Dog 3. Mongol Fire Sparrows 4. Spy Whale and Dolphins 5. The United States Camel Corps.
I actually had to check operation mincemeat as I was always under the impression it was a Scottish man who was used as maj Martin (I blame the man who never was). Interestingly records found in 96 claim it was a Welsh man while the royal navy in 2004 claimed it was a Scottish man
The popular story of Operation Mincemeat is not the accurate version. The version with Glyndwr Michael was actually Plan A. However by the time they got the green light, there were problems. First, the body has been sitting in the morgue for weeks and looked very much deceased for an extended time, not the matter of hours that they needed to be convincing. Second, one of the effects of the poisoning was pneumonia, water accumulating in the lungs. The problem is that this wold be fresh water, not the salt water of the Mediterranean Sea. Any Spanish Coroner with a room temperature IQ would easily determine that this was not a fresh deceased man who drowned at sea but a ruse. Plan B, the version of the story that was kept hidden from the public until decades later, is that they used the corpse of a British Navy sailor. Around the time they got the green light, a British ship was sunk off the coast of Scotland by a German U-boat. Bodies of British sailors were washing up on shore and were stored in local morgues. Montegue and his team raced up to the site and stole one of the sailors to use in their plan. This solved their problems. First, it was a fresh corpse and looked hardly decayed. Second, he had salt water in his lungs. Of course, if it had come out that, instead of a worthless drunk vagrant, they used a heroic young man serving his country honorably, the public would have rioted over the heartlessness of their grave robbing.
What’s the source of this version? I’ve never heard or seen reference to this. In fact it wasn’t until 1997 that it was revealed that the corpse was that of Glyndwr michael. The public had no idea until that time of what happened, so there wouldn’t have been anything for them to get upset about. With regards to the autopsy, this was acknowledged that it would always present a problem, so British consul was present and pressed for the proceedings to be hurried along.
6:50 - As one broadcast journalist to another, you know very well, Simon, that you have no business editorializing as a reporter! But I get so darned tickled every time you do!!!! 😄🤣 Keep it up, friend. You are a bit of sunshine in my life.
So much crazy stuff happened in those 6 long dark years. The sheer ingenuity of the different spy services and military inventions is so incredible. Ofcourse it was horrible and we must never forget the sacrifices of the men that fought. Sabaton has made a fantastic song about Castle Itter called The Last Battle. Great video as always.
To be fair Sagan was a student and asked to do the math. The Soviets also had a project called E-4 to do the same, which explains why we studied this insane idea too.
I love the range of tactics and things tried in wars so much crazy genius ideas but just as many things like this that are more like slightly intense pranks 😂
There's a possible reference to the exploding rats in The Guns of Navarone, where David Niven's character places on when they are setting the bombs to destroy the eponymous guns...
The exploding rats are nowhere near as bad as Russian's anti-tank dogs. During WW2, dogs were fitted with mines and trained to crawl under German tanks where the mine would be triggered destroying both the dog and the tank. Just another crazy WTF moment of that terrible war.
Kinda weird that, after 50 years since we went to the moon, the latest development from NASA was a unmanned trip to the moon with crash test dummies to see if human beings might be able to survive the trip.
The story of Castle Iter was a very inspiring tale of the value of morality and humanity during inhumane circumstances. That a German officer could see the importance of preserving the lives of high ranking enemies and was willing to reach out to another enemy for help, is very humbling. Great batch of stories. If people want a more indepth look at Operation Mincemeat in story form, mrballen has a video on it. In fact, out of sheer coincidence, I happened to watch it before this one, not knowing they tied into one another. Lol
Finally somebody else who Love's history reviewing the Battle of Castle itter that isn't wendigoon 😂 literally nothing against him he's the only one that I know of that has talked about this battle It's one of the most intriguing battles of all of world war 2 imo ever since I heard it from wendigoon The fact that this German captured Castle ended up being a defense point for the Germans the Americans and an Austrian resistance group as well as French celebrities and etc all defending this Castle against the greatest enemy of that time which was the waffen ss or Nazi party as a whole Thank you Simon for making my day especially considering the irony that I just asked 2 historical animation channels to cover this exact battle not even 2 hours before this comment was made I do very much appreciate the actual historical paintings of this battle as well , especially the one where you see the huge ass main section of the castle in the background while you see Americans Germans French and Austrian troops drinking alcohol while seeing a few people of dance in the background . Resembling a moment of Peace within humanity at war . It's as intriguing to me as the time during world war I when the Germans and British I believe set down their rifles for an entire Christmas before regrettably getting back to war afterwards. Thank you Simon and the team as well as anybody else reading this comment good luck to you all and may you all find peace in your domain :3
I do not know who this wendigoon is, but Kings and Generals channel covered it quite excelently. Also covered it Mark Felton several years ago and some other channels.
@@ramonribascasasayas7877 I completely forgot Mark Felton actually did a video on it , Wendigoon is a TH-camr who likes to talk about history in general as well as just random interesting events including analog horror games and stuff But he just like me deeply appreciate the hell out history, also I'll go check out the other dudes cuz I don't think I've heard of them so thnx lol XD
This story is pure Hollywood gold! Dirty dozen meets great escape meets ???? (Senior moment but you know what I mean). Clint Eastwood could still pull off a 'kick-ass' general.
You say that Nuking the Moon was secret, however I remember being given a book about 1960 with a picture showing a proposed moon rocket with the description that it would have two boosters, one each side, and 'may' carry a nukelear
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We need a bayonet and a hydrogen battery
Do these come in in the box
Thank you genuinely for covering this battle Simon.
Plus not to mention the irony of
Not even 2 hours before this was posted I was asking animation channels that make history content to cover this exact battle because I saw a channel called wendigoon cover this battle a while ago , one of those channels being yarnhub and the other being simple history .
This battle in my opinion has the same effect as the Christmas event that happened in world war 1 where the British and Germans we're able to enjoy a Christmas together
For a portion of all of them it was their last .
Aye you Brit’s got freedom of speech?
Yo Simon
Are the bomb sites in Japan still radiated? The moon thing made me wonder.
Perhaps a good video?
Hey Simon! Since you are CLEARLY ASHAMED OF THE WHITE RACE... I was just wondering when you were planning to move from the Czech Republc to your VERY FIRST HOME IN A MAJORITY NON-WHITE COUNTRY??????? OR are you an IGNORANT HYPOCRITE?
1:00 - Chapter 1 - Nuking the moon
2:05 - Mid roll ads
3:30 - Back to the video
7:20 - Chapter 2 - Operation mincemeat
10:45 - Chapter 3 - Operation cornflakes
14:45 - Chapter 4 - Exploding rats
17:55 - Chapter 5 - The battle of castle itter
... the moon? This is why aliens don't visit.
@@canteventhough It's wild that Simons team doesn't break the videos into chapters...
@@Joze1090 I mean they kinda do, but they don't give us a table of contents.
I'm looking at my comment. Seems wrong. I have a fever.
Carl Sagan remarked how silly it looked when we landed on the Moon and declared "we came in peace" to a lifeless rock, all the while conducting a war in Vietnam. It would be absurd if anyone had nuked the Moon and later declared peace to it!
One of the best military operations was Operation Outward - it used cheap, simple balloons filled with hydrogen and carrying either a trailing steel wire to damage high voltage power lines by producing a short circuit, or incendiary devices to start fires, using the prevailing wind to send these deep into the Third Reich. As cheap as effective - and almost completely forgotten about.
Damn for real? And they don’t have a video about it!
I think I've read about this one. There were also the operations where fake tanks, planes, and other fake weaponry was made and set up to trick the Axis powers into useless bombing raids or just to make them think Allied numbers were greater than they actually were in a given area. Surprised that didn't make this list, but they've probably done a video about it in some other list.
Didn’t the Japanese do something similar with hydrogen balloons and magnesium? Aledgedly killed a US or Canadian family camping in the mountains?
Dr. Felton does
Yes it did , the British did a similar thing in France . the wind changed direction blowing the balloons back to England . Where one, was found by children killing them.
One tiny operation that I read about was, Operation Stormtrooper. During the Korean War, a US Special Forces officer found a depot in Seoul full of Waffen SS uniforms, gear, and weapons. Why it was there we don't know. The officer had an idea. He went to his buddy who was planning an upcoming infiltration mission and convinced him to put the gear into use. In the night a fourteen men jumped in North Korea dressed head to toe in Waffen SS gear. They captured a dozen very confused North Koreans and got out via swift boats without a single casualty.
According to author Ed Evanhoe, a Soviet ambassador handed the West German ambassador a formal complaint, charging German troops were operating in Korea. There's no record as to the German ambassadors response.
I was half expecting them to be wearing all white plastic armor and missing every shot.
(Please get the joke)
I *didn't miss* the reference.@@mercenarygundam1487
@@charlessaint7926 Thank God, because this is the Internet, people might get the wrong idea.
I'm guessing the German ambassador was far too busy trying to figure out how the World Almanac recorded an INCREASE IN THE EUROPEAN JEWISH POPULATION during WW2 if "6 million" were exterminated like diseased vermin...
How can you respond to that?
I don't think anything sums up the sheer insanity of the Cold War better than the nuke the moon project. In addition to everything Simon mentioned, it was later revealed that *the Soviets also considered nuking the moon.*
It's seriously a miracle that we made it out of the 20th century. They were so committed to one-upmanship that they had to match or eclipse all of each other's moves, even when those moves were *colossally stupid.* It'd be hilarious if it wasn't all so existentially terrifying.
You missed the coolest part of mincemeat, to see if the letters had been read they fold them only once. When the letter where returned they looked at them under a microscope and could see multiple folds.
They put a black eyelash in the letter to check if the Germans or Spanish had opened it.
@@FrankJmClarke Was that eyelash also Pam's? 🤓
In 2022 a movie about it came out
Love the story of the battle of castle Itter. It needs to be made into a film.
It pales IMHO against the other event when Wehrmacht and US Army fought side-by-side. Look up "Operation Cowboy". And this actually was (loosely based upon) made into a Disney movie: "Miracle of the White Stallions", 1963.
There is a song by Sabaton called "Last battle", if you have not already heard it.
I’m glad we landed on the moon instead of nuking it. 😅
I mean, there was the time a bunch of sweaty greek guys took a city by hiding in a wooden horse...
Allegedly 😅
Don't forget OPERATION COWBOY on April 25th, 1945 where the collaboration of Wehrmacht and US Forces (commanded by General George Patten), saved hundreds of LIPIZZANER horses from the advancing Soviet army who where likely to to feed them to their starving troops.
Operation Cowboy was fought in the Czechoslovakian village of Hostau (now Hostouň), in the last days of fighting in the European Theater of World War II. It is one of two known incidents during the war in which Americans and Germans of the Wehrmacht fought side by side against the Waffen-SS - the other being the Battle of Castle Itter in Austria.
The Background
After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, the Lipizzaner Breeding Mares of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna were transferred to an experimental farm in the village of Hostau, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The goal was to create a race of "Aryan horses". The head of the Spanish Riding School, Alois Podhajsky, was a famed German horseman and dressage expert, and had been a bronze medallist at the 1936 Olympics. He had also been an Austrian Army officer, and by 1938 he had been enrolled in the Wehrmacht with the rank of Major. In the final phases of World War II, Hostau was on the advancing path of the Soviet Red Army from the East, and the German soldiers in the farm were unenthusiastic about surrendering to the Russians. On the other side, to the West, the XII Corps of the American Third Army were also advancing toward the farm, commanded by General George Patton, racing with the Soviets for the liberation of the capital city Prague.
German veterinarians at the farm, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Rudofsky, were scared about what the Russians could do to their horses, as during the liberation of Hungary they had already killed the whole Royal Hungarian Lipizzaner collection. Then Luftwaffe intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Walter Holters, not part of the farm personnel but forced there due to fuel shortage, tried to arrange an agreement with the advancing US troops. Holters, a General Staff Officer, was senior to Rudofsky but they agreed about the goal of saving the precious horses, and a contact was made with the nearest U.S, unit in the area, the 42nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (of the 2nd Cavalry Group). The 2nd CG was famous for its daring deep strikes and was famed between German troops as "Ghosts of Patton's Army". Yet in spite of being a mechanized unit, many of the officers of the Group were horsemen and had served in mounted units before the mechanization, so they immediately planned a rescue operation.
Furthermore, it seems that there was a meeting between Patton and Podhajsky, about a rescue operation of the horses, and for a source, the meeting between Holters and Colonel Reed was not casual, but planned before 26 April.
The operation was not simple for a series of factors. First, German troops at the Czech border were not part of the agreement and would likely oppose the American troops entering the area. Second, many of the hundreds of horses were pregnant and most of the rest had just given birth. Finally, Czechoslovakia had been posted in the Soviet area of influence during the Yalta Conference and the advancing Red Army would likely not have agreed with the operation, had they reached the farm in time.
General Patton, who agreed to the operation, gave orders to quickly create a task force, but available troops were scarce. Assigned were two small cavalry reconnaissance troops with M8 scout cars, some M8 Howitzer Motor Carriages and two M24 Chaffee light tanks and a screening infantry force of 325 men - the task force being command by Major Robert P. Andrews. The path was 20 miles long, into still German-occupied territory with thousands of German troops, including two understrength armoured divisions - among them being the 11th Panzer Division that a few days later would surrender at Passau.
After having passed German defences at the border, with the help of an artillery barrage by the XII Corps, Andrews secured the farm but was then confronted with the task of evacuating the horses. As the horses outnumbered the men in the task force, Andrews enrolled many freed Allied POWs - British, New Zealanders, French, Poles and Serbs. Furthermore, he even gave arms to the captured German soldiers of the Heer and Luftwaffe. Finally he accepted the help of a Russian anti-communist Cossack Prince Amassov, who led a small force of Cossack cavalry that had deserted the German 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. After arriving at the farm Colonel Reed looked for vehicles to move the pregnant horses and new-born foals. Meanwhile Major Andrews turned over the task force to his deputy, Captain Thomas M. Stewart. Before being able to evacuate the farm, this composite force was attacked twice by Waffen-SS infantry, both being repelled with some dead and injured. The SS unit suffered more losses and eventually retreated. Immediately afterwards, Stewart managed to evacuate the horses, some mounted and the rest being herded, just before the first Soviet T-34 tanks appeared in sight. The Soviets avoided any confrontation and the operation was concluded when all the horses were loaded into trucks near the border and secured behind American lines.
Bizarre or what...
Damn, didnt know that, thanks for sharing
You wonder why he didn’t reach the Reichstag first before them since he was technically ahead.
Walt Disney made an excellent movie about that rescue. iirc, its title is THE MIRACLE OF THE WHITE STALLIONS.
My late father served in the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command during the Cold War. He and his fellow airman got to see the DEFCON increase to DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He described it as "interesting."
Lot of guys in found it interesting
When recalled from civilian life to sit in Florida waiting to invade cuba
Your father either had a talent for understatement, nerves of steel or perhaps even both? Either way, it must have been a privilege to hear stories about the Cuban Missile Crisis from the horse's mouth 😎
Those stamps, if any still exist would be very rare and valuable.
I wonder .
They do exist today and are available in the marketplace, and they are indeed valuable if in good condition - a few hundred dollars for a nice example. Since they are valuable, forgeries exist of those stamps, too, and one needs to be careful before buying one. There were many similar examples of forged stamps used by both sides, all of them being fairly scarce and valuable today. They are not so rare that they are impossible to find, though - if you had the money, you could likely find some available examples for sale right now.
At this point in my life I have seen a ton of documentaries about WWII (Simon also played his part)
This is the first time I hear for the battle of Castle Itter. Even if it was a small battle in the grand scheme of things, I think it deserves more public awareness just because of it's unique attributes!
Today I can say I learn something new! Bravo!
Look up sabaton "the last battle" they also have a history channel
@@safillix Thanks! I'll check it out!
Not unique. Look up "Operation Cowboy". And this actually was loosely made into a Disney movie: "Miracle of the White Stallions", 1963.
0:13 that edit was super smooth!
The idea of nuking the moon wasn't even entirely original at the time. A similar idea (involving a powerful electric bomb rather than a nuke being sent to explode on the moon) was a central part of a plot in the syfy novel "What Mad Universe?" by Fredric Brown back in 1949. It was an idea that - in the context of the novel at least - didn't seem questionable at all.
The film Operation Mincemeat will Colin Firth is a great portrayal of its namesake as is Ben Macintyre's book.
In the album "The Last Stand" by the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton, the song "The Last Battle" is about the Battle of Castle Itter.
The board game Castle Itter: The Strangest Battle of WWII is about the Battle of Castle Itter.
Ah yes, a fellow person of culture
Interesting note that at 20:42 you see the victorious defenders of the castle flying a Texas state flag. Makes you wonder, did someone remember the Alamo?
the 142nd infantry regiment that reinforced the defenders was based out of texas, which is why there was a texas flag flying.
God bless Texas
As a teen, I was both in awe and a bit frightened by Sputnik. If they could put a satellite in orbit, what else were they capable of.
My little brother was 2 years old, and I was already a veteran of early "Atomic Drills" which became "Duck&Cover". I wondered then if this would go on all my life. And sadly, in a way it has.
I thought Bat Bombs would have made the list.
If I remember correctly, the movie The Guns of Navarone featured an exploding rat! 😅
Hello Simon. Generally, the name Cholmondely is pronounced 'Chumly' 😊. Love the show, keep them coming.
I wondered when I heard it if that wasn't the case, but I thought "Simon is English, surely he knows that."
@@sherylcascadden4988 I think what hapenned was a small backward child (probably due to inbreeding) couldn' action speak their own name correctly and came out with "Chumley". It must have stuck (maybe they wer all backward inbreds !! )
"Beep, beep! Boop, boop! Hello dere!
Sputnik races giggling 'cross the sky.
Red hands, red faces, join in the race as
The space age begins with a surprise!"
"Surprise" by Leslie Fish
Americans and Germans fighting the S.S is a movie that needs to be made
The Band Sabaton made a Song about it, The Last Battle
Simon did an entire video about castle Itter over on his Geographics channel.
Isn't Geographics one of the channels that Simon was only the presenter for and is no longer associated with?
@@captainspaulding5963yes
@@captainspaulding5963 I'm not really sure what Simons channel arrangement is but he presented a video about castle Itter over on the Geographics channel
"And its the end of the line of the final journey enemies leaving the past. And its American troops and the German army joining together at last".
-sabaton- the last battle.
Growing up during the Cold War was weird. In the '90s we never really expected anything to happen, but there was always the thought in the back of your mind that the only thing "keeping the peace" was the fact that one country could destroy the planet ten times over while the other one could destroy it 100 times over. You just had to trust that no one was dumb enough to push the button first.
I was talking to someone recently about the ethics of the US dropping the nukes during WW2. We eventually landed on "yeah, probably a war crime, BUT... the only reason no one has used a nuclear weapon in war since August of 1945 is *because* they were used in August of 1945." Let's say the bombs aren't ready in time, let's say Japan surrenders anyway after the Russians invaded Manchuria, it's easy to imagine an alternate world where the US never uses the bombs, then the world enters into a Cold War with everyone having much more itchy trigger fingers. Kind of a scary thought.
The 90’s 🤔
I watched the Army flowing to South Floriduh when the missals were being parked in Cuba. Duck and Cover … sure.
@@timan2039 i figured he meant the eighties, the cold war was over by 92. USSR collapse was around then.
80s?
Ha, I just asked if Simon would cover Operation Mincemeat, and here it is. Pretty amazing story. It's also dramatized in a Netflix movie by the same name.
Nuking the moon doesnt seem so strange now that we have had a president that legit wanted to nuke hurricanes…
You can't kill the urge
@@TheOneWhoKnocks969i hate to say it but i am indeed kinda curious about what would happen besides the awful fallout…
first seriously proposed by scientist Jack Reed back in the late 1950's, misunderstandings about radiation & TDS have killed the possibility of it ever seriously being considered. that, and predicting the outcome was thought to be nearly impossible.
@@tiffanynajberg5177 given what ELSE did come from that "Very Stable Jeanius" ... most likely just a radioactive Hurricane
"Its so simple, it just might work!"
You're a legend if get that reference.
I grew up in Alaska during the 80's and mutually assured destruction was terrifying
My favorite WW2 allied wonder weapon was the pigeon guided air to ship bomb.
Nah, the bat bombs were better.
'Top shelf ' products have a completely different meaning in dear ole blighty matey !
Operation Mincemeat was incredible!
Pronunciation made me giggle though - these are closer:
Glyndwr = GLIN-dower
Cholmondeley = Chumley
(no idea why, it just is !)
If you nuke the Moon, you would have to do it in the shadow or nobody would see the pinprick of light. And rather than inspiring awe and fear in the world's population, they would be asking, "Is that it?"
1) Cholmondeley is pronounced as 'Chumley'
2) Glyndwr is pronounced as 'glin-doo-er'
3) There was a plan in WWII to arm icebergs as unsinkable battleships.
I too thought Project Habakkuk should have been on this list. Man-made icebergs full of sawdust, madness. Though since it never got past development, I guess it doesn't qualify as an operation.
Cholmondeley is actually pronounced as Chumly. Go figure. 🤣
See the Harry Enfield skits with "Chumley-Warner".
As an American, I find the first bit to be accurate and hysterically funny 😆
HAHAHAHA!!! Nice touch, using 'Technical Difficulties' to avoid getting demonitised for saying 'Balls' (or something equally childish)
Operation Mincemeat also involved an Aston Martin race car driver turned MI5 agent. He drove the body down to the submarine in his Aston Martin. Very bond.
He was driving a delivery van (it's in the photo in the video here), but as though it was a race car. I can't imagine what it must have been like travelling from London to Scotland at night in a blacked-out van being driven by a lunatic while sitting next to a very dead corpse. Ian Fleming worked in the office that came up with Operation Mincemeat.
@@lukedaniel7669oh my bad. You are indeed correct! I grew up near Gaydon (where AM is based) and locals love to tell the story haha. I guess they embellish a bit :)
Please please please never stop ♥️
Got an idea for another episode 'History's 5 Most Craziest Animal Usage'; 1. The American Bat Bomb 2. The Soviet Anti-Tank Dog 3. Mongol Fire Sparrows 4. Spy Whale and Dolphins 5. The United States Camel Corps.
I actually had to check operation mincemeat as I was always under the impression it was a Scottish man who was used as maj Martin (I blame the man who never was).
Interestingly records found in 96 claim it was a Welsh man while the royal navy in 2004 claimed it was a Scottish man
It was an informative and thrilled watching video...thank you Sir for sharing
The castle one is wild
The popular story of Operation Mincemeat is not the accurate version. The version with Glyndwr Michael was actually Plan A. However by the time they got the green light, there were problems. First, the body has been sitting in the morgue for weeks and looked very much deceased for an extended time, not the matter of hours that they needed to be convincing. Second, one of the effects of the poisoning was pneumonia, water accumulating in the lungs. The problem is that this wold be fresh water, not the salt water of the Mediterranean Sea. Any Spanish Coroner with a room temperature IQ would easily determine that this was not a fresh deceased man who drowned at sea but a ruse.
Plan B, the version of the story that was kept hidden from the public until decades later, is that they used the corpse of a British Navy sailor. Around the time they got the green light, a British ship was sunk off the coast of Scotland by a German U-boat. Bodies of British sailors were washing up on shore and were stored in local morgues. Montegue and his team raced up to the site and stole one of the sailors to use in their plan. This solved their problems. First, it was a fresh corpse and looked hardly decayed. Second, he had salt water in his lungs.
Of course, if it had come out that, instead of a worthless drunk vagrant, they used a heroic young man serving his country honorably, the public would have rioted over the heartlessness of their grave robbing.
What’s the source of this version? I’ve never heard or seen reference to this. In fact it wasn’t until 1997 that it was revealed that the corpse was that of Glyndwr michael. The public had no idea until that time of what happened, so there wouldn’t have been anything for them to get upset about.
With regards to the autopsy, this was acknowledged that it would always present a problem, so British consul was present and pressed for the proceedings to be hurried along.
The irony being that, had the ruse been unsuccessful, we could be living under a very different regime. As it was, ‘desperate times …,’ etc.
6:50 - As one broadcast journalist to another, you know very well, Simon, that you have no business editorializing as a reporter!
But I get so darned tickled every time you do!!!! 😄🤣
Keep it up, friend. You are a bit of sunshine in my life.
So much crazy stuff happened in those 6 long dark years. The sheer ingenuity of the different spy services and military inventions is so incredible. Ofcourse it was horrible and we must never forget the sacrifices of the men that fought.
Sabaton has made a fantastic song about Castle Itter called The Last Battle.
Great video as always.
To be fair Sagan was a student and asked to do the math. The Soviets also had a project called E-4 to do the same, which explains why we studied this insane idea too.
Given the environment on the Moon, radiation and all, it is far far more sensible than nuking Earth.
Operation Cornflakes, 11:35 VT clip of cheerios. Good job XD
Was Mr.Michael pre-posthumestly awarded a medal for his unwilling sacrifice? The Victorian Cross maybe?
It's criminally sad that the Battle of Castle Itter hasn't been made into a Hollywood movie yet.
Op mincemeat reminds me of the SBS motto " By Strength and Guile!"
No Sabaton reference to Castle Itter? Huh
Was kinda expecting the Australian Emu War to be on this list. Yes, Australia went to war, using machine guns against emus, and lost.
I love the range of tactics and things tried in wars so much crazy genius ideas but just as many things like this that are more like slightly intense pranks 😂
There's a possible reference to the exploding rats in The Guns of Navarone, where David Niven's character places on when they are setting the bombs to destroy the eponymous guns...
The exploding rats are nowhere near as bad as Russian's anti-tank dogs. During WW2, dogs were fitted with mines and trained to crawl under German tanks where the mine would be triggered destroying both the dog and the tank. Just another crazy WTF moment of that terrible war.
Didn't help that the dogs often ran under the recognizable tanks they were trained with. That one didn't go far. 😕
Kinda weird that, after 50 years since we went to the moon, the latest development from NASA was a unmanned trip to the moon with crash test dummies to see if human beings might be able to survive the trip.
RAND through and through, Simon.
A Pen and Paper. That's what Bespoke sent me in a box. I canceled right then.
7:47 ‘fraught’ with danger.
If there isn't already a movie/miniseries about The battle of Castle Itter, can someone please produce one?
What happened to the German soldiers after the battle of Itter? Captured by Allied Forces? Free to go?
Castle Itter... those reinforcements were called by a guy on a bike lol amazing story
Cholmondely is usually pronounced Chumley
I'd like to see a movie about that last one.
The story of Castle Iter was a very inspiring tale of the value of morality and humanity during inhumane circumstances. That a German officer could see the importance of preserving the lives of high ranking enemies and was willing to reach out to another enemy for help, is very humbling. Great batch of stories. If people want a more indepth look at Operation Mincemeat in story form, mrballen has a video on it. In fact, out of sheer coincidence, I happened to watch it before this one, not knowing they tied into one another. Lol
Simon has been my escape at work since 2017
Liked for introducing me to the wonderfully named general Gnaeus ‘The Big Hammer’ 👍
I hadn't heard of OP Cornflakes before. Interesting, but probably very ineffective.
You're telling me the military tried to blow up the moon... I don't even have words.
Finally somebody else who Love's history reviewing the Battle of Castle itter that isn't wendigoon 😂 literally nothing against him he's the only one that I know of that has talked about this battle
It's one of the most intriguing battles of all of world war 2 imo ever since I heard it from wendigoon
The fact that this German captured Castle ended up being a defense point for the Germans the Americans and an Austrian resistance group as well as French celebrities and etc all defending this Castle against the greatest enemy of that time which was the waffen ss or Nazi party as a whole
Thank you Simon for making my day especially considering the irony that I just asked 2 historical animation channels to cover this exact battle not even 2 hours before this comment was made
I do very much appreciate the actual historical paintings of this battle as well , especially the one where you see the huge ass main section of the castle in the background while you see Americans Germans French and Austrian troops drinking alcohol while seeing a few people of dance in the background . Resembling a moment of Peace within humanity at war .
It's as intriguing to me as the time during world war I when the Germans and British I believe set down their rifles for an entire Christmas before regrettably getting back to war afterwards.
Thank you Simon and the team as well as anybody else reading this comment good luck to you all and may you all find peace in your domain :3
I do not know who this wendigoon is, but Kings and Generals channel covered it quite excelently. Also covered it Mark Felton several years ago and some other channels.
@@ramonribascasasayas7877 I completely forgot Mark Felton actually did a video on it ,
Wendigoon is a TH-camr who likes to talk about history in general as well as just random interesting events including analog horror games and stuff
But he just like me deeply appreciate the hell out history, also I'll go check out the other dudes cuz I don't think I've heard of them so thnx lol XD
@@djraythefurry0420 I will check this wendigoon. In the meantime, check Kings and Generals and be swayed by the production quality.
@@ramonribascasasayas7877 i am intrigued lol I'm subbed X3
This story is pure Hollywood gold! Dirty dozen meets great escape meets ???? (Senior moment but you know what I mean). Clint Eastwood could still pull off a 'kick-ass' general.
I thought "Cholmondeley" was pronounced "Chumley".
19:09 to this day I don’t understand how no one has made a film loosely based on what happened
You say that Nuking the Moon was secret, however I remember being given a book about 1960 with a picture showing a proposed moon rocket with the description that it would have two boosters, one each side, and 'may' carry a nukelear
(don't know what happened there) .. and may carry a nuclear warhead.
awesome! love to learn about all the interesting subjects on this channel.
20:40 - That's a "Lone Star State" flag. Yay Texas!!!
I was surprised Russian's Special military operation wasn't included in this list...
It's not an operation but for something truly bizarre check out the Habbakuk aircraft carrier made from an ice and sawdust mixture.
Thanks Simon
21:16 Yes, indeed. That's all most weapons are supposed to demonstrate. The word "gun" is used to mean more than one thing.
Great idea
I was half expecting Operation Vegetarian to show up on this one.
Castle Itter? Now there's a movie!
And a bad ass Sabaton song
Time for class with Professor Whistler
Rest in peace to those that passed away.
Truly bizarre and unexpected
Chol-mon-deley??? It's Chumley!
Say old boy, should we roll the dice?
Operation Mincemeat was America juking the hell out of Hitler... 😂
OSS (office of strategic services).Mincemeat. Cornflakes. Exploding rats.
Surprised it wasn't Peter who wanted to nuke the moon. Love all your videos keep up the great work and content!
Sabaton history did an amazing episode about the battle of castle itter, since sabaton had a song called “the last battle” all about that battle.
There are the tides to consider
Water bears water bears everywhere
And not a drop to drink
The moon mars and moons of mincemeat
Black holes makes us all neighbors so please get on
My favorite weird but successful strategy was the ghost tanks.
14:24 truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense
It's pronounced chumly because upper-class names gained prestige the higher the letters to phoneme ratio