Three years since this mess began - well, the European war; the Asian one has been going on a good deal longer. We have another channel called TimeGhost History, and over there we are in the middle of season two of Between 2 Wars, a chronicle of the interwar years. In season one, we looked mainly at the geopolitical world of the interwar years and how - all over the world - it led up to the momentous events of 1939. It's a brilliant series, but that's not all you'll find there, we've done chronological documentaries on a variety of 20th-century events - the Cuba Crisis, the Indonesian War of Independence, the Suez Crisis, and more. You'll love it. The channel link is right here: th-cam.com/users/TimeGhost And of course, check out our rules of conduct before commenting: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
Probably not within the scope of your "coverage", but as I understand it Japan used only the number keys on teletype machines (60 words a minute at the time). A very large book was used to change words to five digit groups of numbers which were encrypted. It seems to me this process would drag down communications speed a good deal.
Can't believe three years have already passed just like that. It's really impressive to see how much of the production has changed and improved vastly over the years! Makes me proud to be part of the TimeGhost Army and a longtime Patreon member.
Same! It feels like I stumbled upon the first video "The Poland-Germany War" only a few months ago. Time flew by so fast for us while for people who went through this war, every day must have felt like a lifetime.
I remember ringing a number when I visited Moscow and the cranky individual at the other end shouted "Oshibayetyes!" ("Wrong number", literally, "you are making a mistake")
Interesting fact, Because fletcher suffers a head wound from falling over during the attack on the Saratoga he was awarded the Purple Heart. And was the oldest man in WW2 to get the award. Though he would be very embarrassed about this award.
@@gunman47 Ohhh Yeah I remembered , I wish I had a PayPal or any form of online credit card , I live in Algeria North Africa and we don't have that stuff widely spread here , our country is beautiful but it's ruled by theives and people loyal to France and it's not democratic and the corruption is so big here that it started to fuck the economy and Value of currency too bad otherwise I would be supporting this channel with patreon
It's important to note that fighting outside of stalingrad was fierce and forces there are now depleted. All German divisions report having around 30%infantry left, and some soviet divisions are depleted from 10500 men to less than 1000. By all regulations all those armies must have been retreated to basically reestablish them again, but this struggle doesn't allow it
Excellent point, something I have learned about Stalingrad only in recent years. The conventional story before then was that the Germans had blown a hole in the front, and the Soviets were running like rabbits. Perhaps some of that, but they were also making stands and relentlessly counter-attacking when they could. In particular, the counterattacks from the direction of Voronezh seem to have kept the Germans from getting the grip on the Volga they craved, and cutting southward down the banks of the river to isolate the Soviets in the city.
@@alansewell7810 exactly. On the west Bank of river Don soviets lost the same amount of tanks in a week battle, that in stalingrad itself during 3 months. And these losses allowed encircled divisions to retreat. But conventional stories just ignore these events and jump straight to the point when almost destroyed soviet units holding stalingrad suburbs waiting for reinforcements to come
@@ВячеславФролов-д7я are tiks qar videos reasonably unbiased? I've seen some of his political videos and was kind of disappointed by the reasoning/objectives of the video.
@@Lex-dw7ng It's real irritating when the whole 'hurr durr Nazis left wing' circle jerk keeps going over and over again on his channel. Just how many facts do you have to ignore in order to come to that conclusion? I mean, seriously?
This week, on August 29 1942, the *Tiger I (Panzerkampfwagen VI)* heavy tank sees action for the first time against the Soviet Red Army near the southeast of Leningrad as part of the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion. Four Tiger tanks were deployed in a single file on marshy ground, which was a terrain that was completely unsuitable for a tank of their weight. Three of the Tiger tanks broke down due to mechanical failures and all four of them had to be recovered and repaired.
@@Kay2kGer Almost like using a tank designed as a purpose built breakthrough specialist to be used sparingly and having ample time for maintenance as a general use vehicle all of the time is a bad idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The war: Three years down, three to go. Montgomery: Alright boys, I hereby order that we aren't gonna be stupid anymore! Rommel: Dang! I still wish they'd promoted Neil Richie.
@@mikhailiagacesa3406 Market Garden despite eventual strategic failure , gained nine times strategically valuable more ground than say Battle of Hurtgen Forest , with %50 less casaulties and concluded in nine days after its failure was clear (unlike Hurtgen Forest where 1st US Army banged its head to fortified defensive belts in a worthless forest for two months and failed to capture both forest and main target Roer dams) It is normal you do not know that though , Hollywood did not make a United Artists movie out of it.
Churchill's first choice to replace Auchinleck was 'Strafer' Gott - but, shortly after being promoted, his plane is ambushed by a flight of German fighters in mysterious circumstances (strangely not mentioned here previously...). It has been speculated based on an account by a German pilot that Gott's flight was intercepted on purpose (probably based on signal intercepts). Only after this does Monty get the gig - which is probably fortuitous for the 8th Army, because Gott has had a hand in almost every calamity that befell them recently, particularly Gazala and Mersa Matruh when he commanded XIII corps. His handling of larger formations was downright inept - it is his fault for abandoning the NZ Division at Minqar Qaim and X corps at Matruh (most other senior commanders on both sides think that the 8th had a good chance at dealing a lethal blow to the DAK), he takes his tanks and leaves the battle without offering a fight. The NZers manage to escape the trap in a dramatic breakout via bayonet at night (infantry vs tanks), but X corps gets mauled badly. Having Gott in charge at Alamein would have been very unfortunate for Britain and the Dominions, Rommel might well have cursed his own luck...
In my experience, if you find the right doctor, you can at least not feel as sad in the warmer parts of the year if you get on the right medication. For me, Zoloft didn’t do a god damned thing before I got onto hundreds of milligrams a day.
@@jessejoyce1295 I actually recovered from it without medicine after I stopped medication. I never feel depressed anymore, I don't have breakdowns and I guess I am more productive now, though that could always be better. I did take some fish oil and magnesium supplements as a friend suggested but I believe me becoming more active in life and finding joy in learning philosophy history and economics and making great discoveries about things I never knew before helped with that. Or as my previous therapist said, I simply grew out of my depression.
I don't know if you have already planned something similar or if it is too impractical but when the fighting comes to the actual city it would be great to have a detailed map even for a small time just to get an idea of the actual progression of the battle. Thanks a lot for the great effort you put behind these videos
I am grateful for maps and the proper pronunciation of the place names. A child of the Cold war, I was not allowed to know anything under communism, sadly not even my Grandfather's home town. 😂
Felt the same way when watching the Great War. Was at community college and they finished by the time I finished my undergraduate education. Now I’m in my Master’s program and will be done with that with plenty of time left in this series. It’s been a ride with the TimeGhost Army lol
@Wallace Foster Bennett I dunno. Like, this entire Stalingrad ordeal seems like it's bound to end in an outflanking. The german army is overstretched enough as is, if the soviets tried, they could probably encircle the german units bogged down in Stalingrad itself if the opportunity arises. And of course, that would cause the entire front to collapse and give the soviets a chance to go on the offensive. As for africa, unless the axis rolls up with some kind of Wunderwaffe to eliminate the Royal Navy in the area, i doubt it'll end well for Rommel now that he got bitchslapped at El Alamein. And if the allies win there, maybe we'll see the war coming back to western europe? I doubt they can do anything towards France until maybe 1944, but take out Italy perhaps? That would be an entire nation out of the war (Albeit not a very useful one) The pacific theater though, i feel like that might become bloody. The US will have to invade Japan proper eventually, and the japanese don't seem like easily defeated folk. That is, of course, unless the US has some kind of trick up it's sleeve. Remember this Manhattan Project thing that keeps popping up every now and then? Yeah, i feel like that might be a setup to explain away how the US doesn't have to invade Japan afterall.
@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs - Oddly, the Germans did have some kind of Wunderwaffe to eliminate the Royal Navy, the Fritz X, the world's first effective radio-guided bomb. But for some odd reason they didn't push its deployment very much. The first examples will see combat use in 1943 and sink the Italian battleship Roma before she can surrender to the Allies. Had the Americans developed something similar, then all those B-17s and B-24s dropping dumb bombs ineffectively from high altitude might have swept the Pacific clear of Japanese ships, out to a 1600km radius from every Allied-held island with a bomber-capable airstrip.
Thank you very much for this episode. My great uncle, L/Cpl Alfred Austin Abbott who served in the 4th Queens Own Hussars died on 1 September 1942 during the battle of Alam el Halfa. He was the driver in an M3 Stuart. This whole series is fantastic, but this episode has a personal poignancy for me.
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you. He was a 21 year old country boy who, until he volunteered in December 1939, had never been more than a dozen miles from his home. He rests at the El Alamein war cemetery. Thanks again for your series.
My great uncle Sapper Ronald James Richards who served with the Royal Engineers, 9 Field Sq. He was killed on the 6th of September 1942, during the battle of Alam el Halfa. Similar to your great uncle he was a 21 year old country boy from Somerset who had never really left hom until he volunteered for service in November 1939. He's also buried at El Alamein war cemetery. My grandfather (his brother) survived the war. He was in the army before the war broke out and was a Sgt based in Libya during 1939. Spent the early part of the war in the East African theater before he ended up being transferred to the 81st West Africa Division and being deployed to Burma. Very sad as stories like our great uncles are all to common during this period.
My son is not even 3 yet. Seems like a lifetime ago this series started. Gives you a good perspective of the scale of the war that a 2 hour movie can't.
@@dragosstanciu9866 If the Germans had been able to end the USSR (how they could do that idk but just for the purposes of the argument) they would have turned their attention to conquering the British. And I don't think they would have been able to hold the home islands against a concentrated German attack...
honestly, sometimes your ending comments make me tear up, im 20 years old rn and been a ww2 enthusiast myself for the past 8 years but everything i read and seen so far is nothing against your coverage of that utterly brutal conflict, i really love this show and especially your way of telling the story, indy. Greetings from Switzerland - Roman
That's how long it took the British to supply a general, given that the Allies seem to require a several-fold advantage in supplies over the Axis to win anything.
@@3dcomrade They mostly did - although the Germans even when they were losing and even when they lost an attack generally managed a positive K/D ratio. But that's the Germans and Germans only, they had very good infantry. Also in 1940 Western front, the Luftwaffe outnumbered the whole Allied airfoce by like 2:1. Air support help, a lot. Just look at what air support will do for the Allies in 1944 Wetern Europe or what Air supremacy did for the American coalition in 1991 against Iraq in Kuwait and in 2003 invasion of Iraq.
@@SuperLusername 2003 Iraq is more of a corrupt system in its final stage of decay being touched by a hard hand and collapses. The others are fair assesments homever
interesting. in this point of history my grandfather was marching with the italian army in direction of the caucasus mountains. he will be redirected somewhere south of stalingrad in the next weeks.
@@pajo103 Patrick, i Hope you are joking. It was an outcome everybody would predict. The italian divisions were not prepared to withstand the force of thousands of tanks charging straingt into theyr Lines without AT guns and german panzer korps as support. Support that was many times promised, but never arrived when needed.
"World is a big place and it might be too big for such a dark dreams, to become reality" - I think this is on of the best quote, that describes WW2 - thank you for this :)
Wow, the flow of this was just great. I had to check the time when I saw the episode was coming to an end. I didn't believe it was 17 minutes long. This series just keeps getting better.
Ok, gotta say it. This is one of the best, most enjoyable series I've ever watched on TH-cam. I have to say I haven't found one thing to disagree with in your reports, and believe me, I'm a pedantic PIA. There's ALWAYS some niggling little detail I can pick at. But...nope. And believe me I've been reading about WW II since high school.
A little bit of trivia...If anyone is thinking why Montgomery, a British General, is wearing an Australian slouch hat, he actually grew up in Tasmania, Australia from the age of 2 to 14 learnt how to skin rabbits and possums and was influenced to be a soldier there before leaving to the UK in his teens. In an interview in Australia post war he once stated he felt "almost Australian".
Senior generals can wear whatever they want, and at times Montgomery could almost be mistaken for a scruffy private in the Tank Corps, when he wore its black beret. Rommel tended to dress more according to German regulations, but did wear captured British gas goggles and a plaid scarf.
@@stevekaczynski3793True but in this case it is undeniably his childhood connection to Australia and wanting to be a soldier at that age that influenced the wearing of a slouch hat at later times I'd suggest. Monty says as much himself in this clip.. th-cam.com/video/PP5f93nYuxQ/w-d-xo.html
Half way through boys! Can’t wait too see the rest of this historical treasure. Congrats to the Time Ghost team on 3 years of this show. Excited for the future.
When the WW1 channel was in the 1914-18 phase I felt like time crawled in comparison to this war which is already 3 years old and basically half way through. Time seems to fly away when you get older and have Covid around 🙃
Poor Saratoga. The US Navy’s most impressive torpedo sponge. Amazingly her heavy Battlecruiser Hull gave her the fortitude to survive the dreaded long lances. Her frequent stays in dry dock did see to it that she got frequent upgrades. Thus she became the US Navy’s second CV(N) Night Fighting Carrier after Enterprise. When next we see her, After she leaves dry dock this time she will be one half of one of the stranger marriages in military history. Hopefully the gang will cover the strange tale of the USS Robin.
Montgomery showing previous 8th Army commanders how it's done by actually paying attention to his adversary's tactics and planning accordingly. It seems so simple but I suppose that's the power of hindsight.
His lack of purpose forfeits an opportunity to defeat the DAK at its lowest ebb - maybe it was wise, we'll never know, but his methodical, attritional strategy will likely cost many lives yet by giving Rommel an opportunity to rebuild his armour reserve and create a defensive line in depth. Auchinleck was dismissed because he refused to take the offensive soon enough for Churchill (who is every bit as inept as Hitler) - but Monty uses Auk's defensive strategy at Alamein; he may well come to find that like Auk, his best-laid plans may not mean much if his subordinates are not up to the task of executing them well - he's got a lot of work to do yet, I guess we'll watch his career with great interest!
@@onylra6265 I think that has it backwards. We KNOW Montgomery's strategy and tactics were successful. He won. Between August 1942 and April 1943 he inflicted a Stalingrad sized disaster on the Wehrmacht while taking sustainable casualties himself. He did that by deliberately staying in balance and eschewing dramatic and potentially risk filled offensives. Knowing what we know now, and with a clear sight of the other side of the hill, it is possible to identify some occasions where a more "gambling" approach had paid off. But that has the benefit of hindsight. In 1942/3, the British Army was fully aware that Rommel had the tactical skill and command bravery to strike at unexpected moments and in unexpected ways, and that those chaotic moments could lead to disaster. Montgomery's whole strategy was to take those moments off the table. Yes, it is possible the end might have been achieved with fewer casualties. But it is also possible that over confidence could lead to disaster. It did in many previous battles, and almost did for the Americans in Tunisia. The error is to see 8th Army's victory as preordained, and thus underrate the care and caution that made the outcome relatively certain. It could well have ended up another false dawn, or worse, a Gazala battle.
@@onylra6265 'Lack of purpose'? That's a gross oversimplification. We've seen EXACTLY what happens when the 8th Army does what you suggested: they get caught in a trap and chewed up by superior Axis AT gun and tank fire (especially 88s). That would be repeating the same mistakes again and again and since we're dealing with someone who knows exactly what he's doing (and not some Italian WW1 Chief of Staff...), That's a big nono. Even if the Panzer Army Africa was at it's 'lowest ebb', that wouldn't stop them from turning the tables on the British, as they've done again and again. Even Rommel was often frustrated by Monty's lack of interest in driving into his AT traps as other British commanders have. In the end, Monty did have a purpose: not getting absolutely curbstomped by the DAK's old tricks, dishing out a lot of damage, and holding the line while preparing for the actual offensive. Even more importantly, Monty seems to be the first British Commander who not only is aware of the superiority of the enemy in a mobile battle, he's also the first to not play along to their tune. The attritional strategy chosen for Alamein was, all things considered, the right call with regards to the battlefield terrain and the strengths and weaknesses of Rommel's army. Costly? It was. But considering the alternative (fighting a swirling mobile battle where Romeel could litterally run rings around his forces), it was the correct decision at the moment. I'm sure Indy and the gang will cover more on Monty's less successful adventures (you know the one..) but there's no denying his major role in winning North Africa for the Allies.
@@jameshannagan4256 As Stalin and Freyberg have so gracefully shown, it also helps when you don't ignore what intelligence says about what the enemy will do.
During Battle of Alam el Halfa Montgomery literally manipulated all of Rommel's Panzer Army movements and attacks as if he planned and commanded enemy army himself. Planting the fake map on No Mans Land for the enemy to find ten days before enemy attack started that falsely showed minefields were thin and full of gaps in southern sector between Himmamiyat and Alam Nayil ridge (they were actually not , there were two very thick mine belts) , that the terrain here was suitable for armor and tracked vehicles (the terrain was actually sticky sand that would swallow tracks and wheels of motorised vehicles and halt Afrikakorps motorised columns) and this sector was weakly held (Montgomery actually concentrated 44th British Infantry Division , 2nd New Zealand Division , 7th and 10th Armored Divisions on Alam Nayil and Alam el Halfa ridge and its eastern flank) , and ordered his forces to meet the enemy in prepared static positions , tanks on hull down positions , artillery and massed anti tank guns concentrated on a full kill zone south of Alam el Halfa because he was aware that Eighth Army still had to go a long way in mobile battle tactics and operations compared to Panzer Army skill so he banned any wild charges that lured and destroyed Eighth Army armor on enemy anti tank gun screens in previous battles due to their bad commanders and their inability to impose authority on armored formations. (Before and after this battle , Montgomery clashed armor generals a lot-well he actually clashed with a lot more people- because of that but since he had the all the authority and the autoracy of army commander re established , he relieved officers who were insubordinate or badly performing officers without mercy) And he used Desert Air Arm extremely well and adding their own lethal firepower to the Alam el Halfa battle where he lured Panzer Army Afrika and caught them on open. Montgomery was so confident of outcome when his chief of Staff Brigadier de Guingand woke him up on night on 30/31 August that enemy offensive started , he remarked "Excellent , could not be better" and went back to sleep. Rommel at the other hand , finally met a British general who did not play according to his rules and not aiding defeat of his own forces first time. On September 2 , under Desert Air Force bombing and strafing and British armor and artillery safely pounding his forces at Alam el Halfa from a safe distance he screamed to his staff in frustriation "The swine (Montgomery) is not attacking !". His Chief of Staff Bayerlein later remarked "After Montgomery arrived , the war in the desert stopped being a game for us"
@@pajo103 Then why don't you invent a time machine , go back to 1942 , convince Montgomery to give up most of his assets in name of sportsmanship during in time of total war ? Or even better , make magic wand , make half of Eighth Army disappear , so they would fight on "equal" terms ? What do you think ? Woıuld that satisfy ze "Wehrboro" fans ? If none of them works there are some good real time strategy games including campaign in North Arfica. And by the way Montgomery did not have an overwhelming strength in everything , another populist myth made up to look Rommel and Afrikakorps like romantic doomed figures.
@@pajo103 bit of a daft comment really. What people had at the time is what they had. You are fighting a war. You want every advantage you can bloody well have. This wasn’t a computer game. Decisions generals, soldiers, politicians would make would determine how the world would look when victory was achieved.
@@dudeofvalor9294 Even more comically , when US Navy or USMC attacked remote Pacific atolls with 10 times more men with colossal firepower superiorty from air and sea to fight against isolated garrisons over and over or when Red Army launched massive offensive operations with huge ten or twenty times superiorty in tanks , guns , aircraft , or when six German divisions (half of them panzer divisions) with total air cover and support crossed Meuse river against a hastily trained reserve garrison of two French divisions with low quality in May 1940 or US Army with overwhelming superiorty attacked German positions isolated like Anzio , Brest , Aachen or Fort Driant (later failed but no Hollywood movie made about it) , we do not hear any critism but Montgomery used overwhelming firepower superiorty to reduce casaulties in frontal attacks he had to implement due to lack of options ? Noooo , heresy , unsportsmanlike ! And Montgomery had overwhelming superiorty nonsense is another populist over exagerration by the way. In frontal attacks against fortified enemy positions or defensive operations you need three to one numerical superiorty in numbers , Montgomery's command in Eighth Army in 1942-43 or 21st Army Group in 1944 had less than that usually and had to compansate that deficiancy with firepower and proper logistics. Compared to him Neil Ritchie had almost twice more number of men , tanks and guns than Panzer Army and he lost Benghazi , Gazala , Tobruk in 1942 and Auchinleck having more resources still and supply depots in Alexandria close by , lost Mersa Matruh and failed all of his counter attacks in First Battle of Alamein July 1942 and they delivered all supply depots in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh intact to Rommel.
The North Africa front is a spectacularly constant back and forth. Let me recom: - the British steamroll the unarmored Italians - Rommel arrives and steamrolls the British, but gets stuck in Tobruz - the British get reinforced and steamroll Rommel - Rommel gets reinforced and steamrolls the British, but gets stuck in Al-Alamein Meanwhile, Cyrenaica have changed hands like four times.
Thank you for calling the Kokoda Track campaign exactly that, I didn't think your already extremely impressive series could rise in my estimation but it has.
THE LIONS OF EL ALAMEIN So Many people don't know about the Huge Role of Italy in the battle of el Alamein and their bravery that allowed Rommel and the Afrikacorps to retreat Indy Can you please cover the rearguard actions preformed during the retreat after the second battle of el Alamein ,The Tenacity of the outnumbered outgunned Italian units allowed Erwin Rommel's Forces to escape total destruction at the start of the battle the Ariette division with the help from a bersaglieri and units from the folgore divisions held back Montgomery 13rd korps long enough to prevent it from reaching the main frontline , the armoured division vittorio went on the attack on the British 133 infantry brigade , the attack annihilated the British unti Killing 60 men and knocking out their exposed anti tank guns and capturing 300 on the 2nd of November the 9th British Armoured brigade launched another attack but lost 70 of it's 94 tanks to bersaglieri artillery , Erwin Rommel Praised the sacrifice of the Italian divisions covering his withdrawal , the last Italian unit to fight At el Alamein was the folgore division of elite paratroopers this is when the lion truly roared holding back 3 British divisions and 1 free French brigade with little ammunition and almost no Anti tank guns the folgore lured the attackers and then attacked from all sides using Molotov cocktails and grenades costing the allies 120 tanks , The Italians retreated slowly protecting the rear of the Afrikakorps always refusing to surrender , We Must Honor the Men that were the lions of the folgore "Winston Churchill" the Italians strategic ,doctrinal , and logistical and leadership and equipment and weaponry flaws were big When the Italian forces had Good equipment and Leadership they Scored victories or delayed defeats fought with Courage and fought well .
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 when the New Zealanders over ran Ariete division’s artillery most of the Italians died at their guns. Can’t expect more than that. Rommel had a lot of respect for the Italian soldier. Less so for many of their officers.
3 years of making our weekends interesting for free, can't thank you enough. My favourite channel and narrator on youtube hands down. Would like Pearl Harbour like coverage of an event again.
Im happy that a detailed series of the D-day invasion is on the way also it would be nice if a detailed coverage was made about the battle of Berlin in any case keep up the good work always look forward to new episodes...
the Germans were short on fuel so annexing Luxembourg is logical fuel is so cheap there sorry - just couldn't resist making this joke, annexing Lux was one of so many low points of German history
@@kleinweichkleinweich I studied German, and to a certain extent Russian, at the University of Trier, just a short distance from Luxembourg. I knew people who would cross the border from Germany because cigarettes were cheaper in Luxembourg. I remember purchasing white wine in Luxembourg that was cheaper than in Germany, though that whole area is wine-growing.
"Rommel was dealing with fearsome logistical problems. His armour low on fuel, his artillery was rationed in the number of rounds it could fire and the RAF was making serious inroads on his supply convoys. Just as the Italian advance of two years earlier had lengthened its own supply lines and shortened those of the British, so too at this moment the advantages enjoyed by Rommel's enemy began to stack up, not least in cutting the flying time for many RAF squadrons based in the Delta." - Mark Urban "The Tank War" (on the Battle of Alam Halfa)
Rommel at the start of Alam El Halfa attack had seven days worth of fuel stocked at his depots at Alamein , within that seven days British did not give any opening to him to be exploited by Panzer Army anymore unlike in Gazala or First Battle of Alamein , his logistical problems were both overrated and caused by his own previous over arrogance and over confidence to be next conquerer of Egypt by overextending his rear supply lines to breaking point. Once he checked in First Battle of Alamein in July 1942 and all booty captured in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh dried up , he should have pulled Panzer Army back to defend Libya where he could do his mobile war tricks again and and again against Eighth Army under Luftwaffe air cover according to his original orders from OKW but being promoted to Field Marshal rank without necessary experience in young age got to his head with his obsession to be conquerer of Egypt and instead stuck in Alamein immobile and static under total RAF air superiorty against Eighth Army which was way better schooled and supplied in static set piece operations.
@@merdiolu Personally I'm not so sure that Rommel had the luxury of being able to pull back and defend, not only were the allies increasing in strength and equipment, but in addition his own supplies from Italy were being sunk, perhaps if he'd never advanced in the first place he could have held for longer, but given the supply situation I believe that Rommel realized that the only way to win was to defeat the 8th army as soon as possible, otherwise they would simply increase in strength relative to his own.
@@ecophreak1 On the contrary , before Pedestal Convoy reached Malta , almost all Axis supply ships (%80 of them or more) were being delivered to Tripoli and Benghazi intact in 1942 summer you can read , "Malta Strikes Back" by Ken Ford or "Ship Busters" by Bruce Tucker to confirm that and that was the maximum effort Italian shipping capacity could manage to hold Libya not attack Egypt , he had luxury of not advancing recklessly into Egypt (just because he captured lots of logistical booty in Tobruk does not mean fuel and other supplies created out of thin air in future) Because of captured Britis supply depots intact in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh , Panzer Army in a exhausted and understrength state could advancd into Egypt , that blinded Rommel the necessity of a supply line. And Eighth Army (especially after Monty took over in August) was vary of a mobile battle which a pursuit would involve. Panzer Army could lure British armor to anti tank gun screen in deserrts of Libya and Cyreneica just like he did over and over if they became over ambitous since till Montgomery put a strong leash on them , British armored brigade division generals were not that bright. Rommel could enforce mobile battle where his forces excelled over British again and again who were still could not comprehend all arms combined arms warfare till August-September 1942. Instead just to be seen good on popular propaganda that Axis was holding a piece of Egypt he put Panzer Army in static immobile posittions at Alamein line to be crushed and after being crushed in November , still he made a good retreat with a fragment of Panzer Army at the cost of abandoning Italians. "But Eighth Army was getting stronger" is a convinient excuse for Rommel/Wehrboro fans. Numerical superiorty is an useful advantage but does not guarantee everything unless you have a way colossal superiorty in quantity like Persians against Spartans at Thermopolyee. (and even then Persians had to outflank Spartan positions)
I appreciate the U-boat tonnage update. Maybe a merchant marine casualty count next to the tonnage count? I also hope this will happen for the US submarine campaign against Japan
@@jasondouglas6755 I'd wait until next summer for much focus on the USN subs. They're still having teething issues at this point, especially with the Mk14 torpedo.
@@jasondouglas6755...which is truly unfortunate, as the most successful submarine campaign in human history was not the one waged by the Germans in the Atlantic, it was the US submarine campaign waged against Japan. By war's end US submarines will be responsible for 55% of Japanese merchant ship losses, and was the single biggest factor in the collapse of the Japanese economy late in the war. US submarines had succeeded in completely cutting the supply chain to an island nation, something the U-boat campaigns failed to do in both world wars. US submarines were also responsible for sinking 30% of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
I believe in order to prepare the episode about Leningrad under siege you need to use materials collected by Mark Solonin. He compiled a unique list of original documents proving that starvation in Leningrad was the result of a planned soviet schema to get the material values from the population of Leningrad in exchange for food using the black market as an intermediary. The amount of funds collected from the starving population had the magnitude of the Soviet Union's pre-war defence budget.
It would be really important to show that the magnitude of crimes commited by the soviets against local population exceeded magnitude of crimes commited by nazis.
The only comment i have seen from him is the reason why such catastrophe is possible. The Winter War, a reasoning for the Finns to retake their stolen land. Which if never happened might spare the population of the city from the suffering You better give me some comments from the man of such view you said. He is a repuutable historian, dont stain his name in the comments. Youre a Muslim, dont lie
I'm a TimeGhost supporter, yet I only watch these videos on TH-cam. Glad y'all are doing it goes really well with my covid reading. Love you guys keep it up!
Hard to believe it's already been 3 years since the start of this war when Indy was winding down the Great War. Time flies! My brother and I were both single back then, and now we're both married and he has a kid! A lot can happen in 3 years!
I just started to read "Stalingrad" by Andrey Eremneko (the chief of Stalinfrad's front). The book events begin from August '42. Not sure if it's available in English, but I definitely recommend reading it for everyone interested in the Stalingrad battle.
I would be so pleased to see a ww2 special dedicated to the New Zealanders during ww2 in particular the Maori Battalions, they are worth the spotlight!
Well there was one Maori Battalion and they weren’t regarded by NZ officers as the best unit in the Division. But yes, a special would be good. Freyberg’s story is an epic of its own.
Damn, I like Monty! I like the restraint and self discipline that he shows in his plans and after success. How he didnt get caught up in the greed and pursue, with great risk, Rommel from Alamein.
Because he knew his army's capabilities , strengths and weaknesses , advantages and disadvantages better than previous amateur part time precedessors in Eighth Army and played his hand accordingly. British Army was not German Army. Its aspects were unique. US Army or Red Army were not German Army. Their aspects , improvement , operational culture and development are unique just like British Commonwealth. In populist war histories , military benchmark is always taken from German standarts (which were then adapted by NATO after the war that causes that misapprehension especially in Western oriented history narratives) as if everyone else had an obligation to operate just like them under same numbers and conditions and mindset. The strengths and weaknesses of British Commonwealth armies were different from Germans and Montgomery knew that. He extracted maximum performance from that army made up civilians in uniform , minimised casaulties by companseting with firepower and rarely gave Germans any oppurtunity to exploit. He played safe and cautious sometimes yes but because of that he ended the war in Field Marshal rank forcing the Germans to sign Unconditional Surrender in Elbe 1945
@@merdiolu Exactly, that's why I like him. He may be the reason the three brothers of a British family meet back home 2 Christmasses later than under Patton - for example. But, he is going to make sure that ALL three borthers meet back home at Chrtismass.
Hi Indy Its been three years since war broke out.. So much atrocities,pain,death,unhumane behaviour... What i learn in history class just a world war happened two sides fought each other and killed and war ended.. But hidden behind this war massive killing with no mercy ,never heard before. Because of you and your team,i have learned lot... Congratulations for covering this gigantic series for three years.. Always want to see all your videos.. Thanks team...
Guys, I have a suggestion for your next project (or side project to this one). What all major (and other) countries newspapers wrote every day of the war. I am sure Indi with his charisma and artistic talent will make this project extremely interesting. To feel that war through newspapers of that time from different countries perspective is to feel the media reflection of these societies attitude, propaganda, values, mood, delusions and hopes. Though of cause it will be not easy task to do.
Germans finally reach limits of their advance. Stalingrad and El Alamein never will be taken. There is just too few men and tanks at too long supply lines end, and enemy is finally starting to learn the art fo mobile armor warfare. How long til they turn the tables on Axis and start encircling entire armies themselves?
Don’t sell the Germany army short, it’s still undefeated and is more than capable of conducting a fighting retreat, if the allies act to hastily they could inadvertently undo any advantage they have gained.
You should do a focus on the minor Axis powers on the Eastern Front. Romania in particular made a large contribution to Fall Blau. Soviets of course focused on Germany's allies armies when they encircled Stalingrad. Also doing biographies on Antonescu and others would a good thing, there are very little bio videos about them!
This is almost exactly the half-way point of the war. It started three years ago and will continue almost three more years, if the conclusion is counted as mid-August 1945 when Japan surrenders. Approximately 15,000 human beings, mostly unarmed noncombatants murdered by armed German and Japanese soldiers, were killed each day in a war that lasted a little over 2,000 days. Here at the midpoint, were the Germans, Japanese, and Italians beginning to sense that their glory days were over, and for the next three years, it would be a grinding, agonizing retreat back to ruins of their homelands?
The Axis should realize it at this point, but they'll definitely realize it after their string of defeats in early 1943. Particularly as those defeats will have come even before the US war economy has fully geared up.
I dont think there was anything to realize except for the Japanese. Germans have not yet been stopped in USSR, nor is London 100% sure Suez won't be visited by Rommel within the next few months. The second happy time in the Atlantic is still going on. Guadalcanal is famous now - after 1942, but still was a minor skirmish at that point. Japan has lost 4 carriers, but no one, except the IJN, Tojo and Hirohito knows about that. There is literally nothing to worry about yet for an average Hans.
@@SuperLusername But perhaps the trepidations were beginning to be felt, because their aura of invincibility was shattered. Germans had been stopped for six weeks near Smolensk, halted at Leningrad, halted then beaten back 100 miles and more from Moscow, surrounded at Demyansk, and blocked short of the significant oil fields of the Caucasus. Japanese navy losing 1/3rd of its carrier force at Midway, and being turned back at Midway and Port Moresby. Now on the defensive in Guadalcanal. Germany, Japan, and Italy must have sensed that the easy conquests during their early surprise offensives were over, and the war of attrition against the three mightiest nations of the Earth (USA, USSR, and British Empire), which they were poorly equipped to wage, was on.
@@SuperLusername The U.S. Navy certainly knew about the loss of those four Japanese aircraft carriers, if, for no other reason, Ensign George Gay had a front-row life ring and survived to be debriefed. Met the guy in 1986 at Brown Field in Otay Mesa, CA.
The terrible twos finally end, with its discovery and (over)use of the word "no." Axis: okay, on the docket we've got crushing British morale by bombing historical sites, control of Egypt, taking over Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad and the oil fields to the south, and decisive victories at the Coral Sea and Midway, destroying the US Pacific fleet. Allies: No. Axis: umm... which one? Allies: No. As the third year starts, we can look forward to gaining the motor skill to walk backwards, and of course temper tantrums.
Yes but nothing was mentioned whether this had any effect. I wonder who found it and what they did. Regardless it does highlight that the British we're very fond of this kind of stuff and used it often and sometimes with dramatic results like Patton's fake invasion army
@@Veronicastacxj even if it didn't exactly work, as you said it shows a level of deception that a lot of other armies do not go too. Like having a fake plane crash and using the body of a homeless welshman too stand in as a high ranking agent with plans that the invasion was to take place at Calais
@@Alex-cw3rz Planting fake maps or plans wasnt exactly rare, though. I mean by this time many assumed that a found plan is likely planted, like the plan for the german summer offensive this year.
@@bond0815 very true , so the Britih plan was not to TELL the Germans but to SUGGEST and reinforce existing assumptions , Tell the enemy what he WANTS to hear and he will believe .
I your channel!! It’s the only thing I’ve watched over the last 4 days. You have a very intriguing way of presenting that makes me actually want to listen and learn! Please keep the amazing content coming, I’m off to join your Patreon! Gotta support this anyway I can!
3 years... my 97y/o grandfather enjoys your channel. He ran a 3" gun crew on the uss newyork BB34 in the pacific. They got hit by a kamikaze off of Okinawa to minimal effect. He says he still has a piece of that plane he made in to a bracelet.
thanks for putting out such quality content! can anyone point me to the episode where the #s of lend lease equipment are covered? It's not the ww2 in numbers special episode - I'm talking about the segment where indy discusses the allied shipments of arms, materiel, medical and raw resources to the soviets
September 4, 1942. Lance Corporal John Evans of the 44th Home Counties Division is now on the front in the El Alamein sector, part of the 8th Army commanded by Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery. He is stationed on the Alam el Halfa Ridge, ready to defend it from a German-Italian offensive, which comes this week. The Battle of Alam el Halfa begins and ends as the German panzers fail to capture the ridge, having run into a minefield and taken a beating from the well prepared British defenders. This is John’s first battle in North Africa, but his journey in the desert sands has only just begun. Private First Class Hinata Nakamura of the 2nd Division lands on Guadalcanal west of the Matanikau River today. Having been part of the Aoba detachment, split from the rest of the 2nd Division in August, he reached Rabaul in preparation to land in New Guinea, but he was instead sent to Guadalcanal. This fateful campaign on the large tropical Solomon island will show Hinata horrors and destruction as well as bravery and courage he could never have possibly imagined. As it stands now, he is eager to use the skills he learned in the Dutch East Indies campaign to help recapture Guadalcanal and bring honour to his family and the Empire.
Great episode as always. I'm wondering what the Japanese are doing in Burma. We haven't heard anything from that sector of the world since May. Additionally how are Mao and Chiang Kai-shek doing fighting back the Japanese? Not much has been said about them since the Burma road as been closed.
Same goes for the central part of the eastern front. Haven’t hear about it in months despite huge fightings at rzhev. It might be on their Twitter maybe but they also said in the past they focus on what’s most important at a given time
You'll see more about Burma as the autumn turns to winter. Same with China- although we've covered the Japanese "punishment" attacks in China this summer primarily on War Against Humanity, Japan has had its hands full mainly with the Allies this summer/fall.
Congratulations on making it offcially halfway through WW2. You guys should be proud of yourselves in presenting the most comprehensive information on this tragedy in world history. I am so honored to be a part of the Time Ghost Army. When you guys are truly finished, you must create a Blu-Ray, DVD etc set that encompasses every show you have done on this conflict, including BETWEEN 2 WARS, WARS AGAINST HUMANITY, OUT OF THE FOXHOLES, everything else and an AFTERMATH series which im sure you guys are already working on. Indy Neidel, you are a great presenter and i look forward to your episodes every week. Spartacus Olson continues to show his sadness for WAR and Anna is just a gem for OOTF. Love all of you guys. NEVER FORGET!
Know this: in few years same roaring planes which had sown terror and indiscriminate death to population of Berlin became heralds of hope and life as they brought in fuel and food in amounts thought impossible to achieve without rail or ship.
THE LIONS OF EL ALAMEIN So Many people don't know about the Huge Role of Italy in the battle of el Alamein and their bravery that allowed Rommel and the Afrikacorps to retreat Indy Can you please cover the rearguard actions preformed during the retreat after the second battle of el Alamein ,The Tenacity of the outnumbered outgunned Italian units allowed Erwin Rommel's Forces to escape total destruction at the start of the battle the Ariette division with the help from a bersaglieri battalionand units from the folgore divisions held back Montgomery 13th korps long enough to prevent it from reaching the main frontline , the armoured division vittorio went on the attack on the British 133 infantry brigade , the attack annihilated the British unti Killing 60 men and knocking out their exposed anti tank guns and capturing 300 on the 2nd of November the 9th British Armoured brigade launched another attack but lost 70 of it's 94 tanks to bersaglieri artillery , Erwin Rommel Praised the sacrifice of the Italian divisions covering his withdrawal , the last Italian unit to fight At el Alamein was the folgore division of elite paratroopers this is when the lion truly roared holding back 3 British divisions and 1 free French brigade with little ammunition and almost no Anti tank guns the folgore lured the attackers and then attacked from all sides using Molotov cocktails and grenades costing the allies 120 tanks , The Italians retreated slowly protecting the rear of the Afrikakorps always refusing to surrender , We Must Honor the Men that were the lions of the folgore "Winston Churchill" the Italians strategic ,doctrinal , and logistical and leadership and equipment and weaponry flaws were big When the Italian forces had Good equipment and Leadership they Scored victories or delayed defeats fought with Courage and fought well .
Don't you know that there is no good and bad in war there is just young men serving their country following orders of old men who hate each other and make stupid ideologies and wage war on each other , If you don't respect your enemy you are not worth of fighting him in battle keep that in mind the British highly respected Erwin Rommel and the Afrikacorps and the Italian army as well because the good way they treated prisoners and tenacious fighting there
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 There is plenty of evil in war. Much less good is to be found, but it exists as well. One side in this war was waging a genocidal war of extermination, and the other was not.
@@lycaonpictus9662 but Warcrimes were committed by both sides and everyone knows that north Africa had the least amount of Warcrimes so you can't you just admire both sides struggle and bravery in North Africa ??
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 Rommel stole their trucks and abandoned them to destruction to make good his own escape, then blamed them for his fuckups later. They ended-up as a roadbump for a vastly superior enemy all so some arrogant Germans serving Hitler to escape to cause more mischief another day and they were annihilated. Most of them surrendered (intelligently and honorably). Courage in the name of dishonour and futility is nothing to admire - that is fascist fanaticism.
I thought this before and I still think your program should be mandatory for every high school history class in all countries. Please keep up the great work. Thank you.
Now you know how it feels to be hung up on Indy! 😂😂 even If the lines were cut 😉 Seriously though I've loved every second of these videos. Keep up the great work!
Three years since this mess began - well, the European war; the Asian one has been going on a good deal longer. We have another channel called TimeGhost History, and over there we are in the middle of season two of Between 2 Wars, a chronicle of the interwar years. In season one, we looked mainly at the geopolitical world of the interwar years and how - all over the world - it led up to the momentous events of 1939. It's a brilliant series, but that's not all you'll find there, we've done chronological documentaries on a variety of 20th-century events - the Cuba Crisis, the Indonesian War of Independence, the Suez Crisis, and more. You'll love it. The channel link is right here: th-cam.com/users/TimeGhost
And of course, check out our rules of conduct before commenting: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
Probably not within the scope of your "coverage", but as I understand it Japan used only the number keys on teletype machines (60 words a minute at the time). A very large book was used to change words to five digit groups of numbers which were encrypted. It seems to me this process would drag down communications speed a good deal.
Today video is release on my birthday of the 4th of september! That makes me really happy!
Could it be possibly for Indy to say happy birthday to me in next week episode?
Why does your comment say 3 days ago? XD
Edit: early access for patrons maybe?
@@thaneofwhiterun3562 That´s weird. Because i´m not a early access patrons. So i´m just as confused as you are.
Can't believe three years have already passed just like that. It's really impressive to see how much of the production has changed and improved vastly over the years! Makes me proud to be part of the TimeGhost Army and a longtime Patreon member.
Thank you for your support! People like you are what allows us to keep making videos, we're extremely grateful to you for that!
Same! It feels like I stumbled upon the first video "The Poland-Germany War" only a few months ago. Time flew by so fast for us while for people who went through this war, every day must have felt like a lifetime.
And we are only halfway
I suddenly feel old. My position at work has changed, but the desk at home that I'm watching this on hasn't
but we are only halfway there...
I think this telephone gag is gonna end with Indy calling Friedrichstrasse and somebody cussing at him in Russian
I hope so!
Wouldn't it be calling Nagasaki?
"Listen, I know you ordered Steiner to attack, but he simply doesn't have the men to do so! What do you mean treason?"
@@janwacawik7432 The rant that launched a million memes...
I remember ringing a number when I visited Moscow and the cranky individual at the other end shouted "Oshibayetyes!" ("Wrong number", literally, "you are making a mistake")
Germany: We’ll be home by Christmas.
OKW: This Christmas right?
Germany:…
OKW: Right?
Heh.
"Ve didn't say vhich one."
Christmas 1956, after a long time in Siberia.
Interesting fact, Because fletcher suffers a head wound from falling over during the attack on the Saratoga he was awarded the Purple Heart. And was the oldest man in WW2 to get the award. Though he would be very embarrassed about this award.
If memory serves correct he never commanded carriers in combat again.... The criticism of him was he was always refueling and not fighting.
@@jeffreysams3348 Yep, King didn't like Fletcher so he had him removed. Nimitz actually liked Fletcher but he was overruled.
What I don't understand is that how your comment in 2 days old on a video that have been posted 1 hour ago LOL
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 TimeGhost Army / Patreon supporters get to see the video a few days early.
@@gunman47 Ohhh Yeah I remembered , I wish I had a PayPal or any form of online credit card , I live in Algeria North Africa and we don't have that stuff widely spread here , our country is beautiful but it's ruled by theives and people loyal to France and it's not democratic and the corruption is so big here that it started to fuck the economy and Value of currency too bad otherwise I would be supporting this channel with patreon
It's important to note that fighting outside of stalingrad was fierce and forces there are now depleted. All German divisions report having around 30%infantry left, and some soviet divisions are depleted from 10500 men to less than 1000. By all regulations all those armies must have been retreated to basically reestablish them again, but this struggle doesn't allow it
Excellent point, something I have learned about Stalingrad only in recent years. The conventional story before then was that the Germans had blown a hole in the front, and the Soviets were running like rabbits. Perhaps some of that, but they were also making stands and relentlessly counter-attacking when they could. In particular, the counterattacks from the direction of Voronezh seem to have kept the Germans from getting the grip on the Volga they craved, and cutting southward down the banks of the river to isolate the Soviets in the city.
@@alansewell7810 exactly. On the west Bank of river Don soviets lost the same amount of tanks in a week battle, that in stalingrad itself during 3 months. And these losses allowed encircled divisions to retreat. But conventional stories just ignore these events and jump straight to the point when almost destroyed soviet units holding stalingrad suburbs waiting for reinforcements to come
@@aleksazunjic9672 yeah, his battlestorm series are awesome
@@ВячеславФролов-д7я are tiks qar videos reasonably unbiased? I've seen some of his political videos and was kind of disappointed by the reasoning/objectives of the video.
@@Lex-dw7ng It's real irritating when the whole 'hurr durr Nazis left wing' circle jerk keeps going over and over again on his channel. Just how many facts do you have to ignore in order to come to that conclusion? I mean, seriously?
This week, on August 29 1942, the *Tiger I (Panzerkampfwagen VI)* heavy tank sees action for the first time against the Soviet Red Army near the southeast of Leningrad as part of the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion. Four Tiger tanks were deployed in a single file on marshy ground, which was a terrain that was completely unsuitable for a tank of their weight. Three of the Tiger tanks broke down due to mechanical failures and all four of them had to be recovered and repaired.
at least they were on the atack and had the time to repair them, later in the war when the tanks broke down in defence, they had to be abandomed
@@Kay2kGer Almost like using a tank designed as a purpose built breakthrough specialist to be used sparingly and having ample time for maintenance as a general use vehicle all of the time is a bad idea ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@stevethegeck0 yeah, you are right.
Wasn’t that when the Russian captured their first example?
@@stevethegeck0 Aah a fellow TIK viewer.
The war: Three years down, three to go.
Montgomery: Alright boys, I hereby order that we aren't gonna be stupid anymore!
Rommel: Dang! I still wish they'd promoted Neil Richie.
That's just about right.
...MarketGarden...nothing stupid there.
@@mikhailiagacesa3406 Market Garden despite eventual strategic failure , gained nine times strategically valuable more ground than say Battle of Hurtgen Forest , with %50 less casaulties and concluded in nine days after its failure was clear (unlike Hurtgen Forest where 1st US Army banged its head to fortified defensive belts in a worthless forest for two months and failed to capture both forest and main target Roer dams) It is normal you do not know that though , Hollywood did not make a United Artists movie out of it.
Churchill's first choice to replace Auchinleck was 'Strafer' Gott - but, shortly after being promoted, his plane is ambushed by a flight of German fighters in mysterious circumstances (strangely not mentioned here previously...). It has been speculated based on an account by a German pilot that Gott's flight was intercepted on purpose (probably based on signal intercepts). Only after this does Monty get the gig - which is probably fortuitous for the 8th Army, because Gott has had a hand in almost every calamity that befell them recently, particularly Gazala and Mersa Matruh when he commanded XIII corps. His handling of larger formations was downright inept - it is his fault for abandoning the NZ Division at Minqar Qaim and X corps at Matruh (most other senior commanders on both sides think that the 8th had a good chance at dealing a lethal blow to the DAK), he takes his tanks and leaves the battle without offering a fight. The NZers manage to escape the trap in a dramatic breakout via bayonet at night (infantry vs tanks), but X corps gets mauled badly.
Having Gott in charge at Alamein would have been very unfortunate for Britain and the Dominions, Rommel might well have cursed his own luck...
The Americans at kasserine pass 👁 👄 👁
I have been going through mild depression for years by this point, but your content never fails go cheer me up
We're glad our work can bring you joy! Stay safe, and thank you!
Wait, Panzer of the lake? Are you from Easy Tech Fan Community?
In my experience, if you find the right doctor, you can at least not feel as sad in the warmer parts of the year if you get on the right medication. For me, Zoloft didn’t do a god damned thing before I got onto hundreds of milligrams a day.
@@jessejoyce1295 I actually recovered from it without medicine after I stopped medication. I never feel depressed anymore, I don't have breakdowns and I guess I am more productive now, though that could always be better. I did take some fish oil and magnesium supplements as a friend suggested but I believe me becoming more active in life and finding joy in learning philosophy history and economics and making great discoveries about things I never knew before helped with that. Or as my previous therapist said, I simply grew out of my depression.
“…too big for such dark dreams to become a reality.” Even in the future I take great comfort from that line. Thank you!
@Darkstar Thanks for watching
I don't know if you have already planned something similar or if it is too impractical but when the fighting comes to the actual city it would be great to have a detailed map even for a small time just to get an idea of the actual progression of the battle. Thanks a lot for the great effort you put behind these videos
Thank you!
I second this
TIK History has been already doing just that for quite some time now, within his Battleground Stalingrad series
I am grateful for maps and the proper pronunciation of the place names.
A child of the Cold war, I was not allowed to know anything under communism, sadly not even my Grandfather's home town. 😂
@@Warszawski_Modernizm And doing a dang good job of it to. I would call it a definitive work on the subject.
I often wonder what the reaction was when the Japanese Army found out later about all of the sunk carriers the Navy kept hidden from them.
Probably "well, that's all right, we don't tell them about our own losses".
3 years ago today I started secondary school, I'm growing up with this series. Thanks for the amazing content :)
Thank you! We're glad you enjoy our work!
Felt the same way when watching the Great War. Was at community college and they finished by the time I finished my undergraduate education. Now I’m in my Master’s program and will be done with that with plenty of time left in this series. It’s been a ride with the TimeGhost Army lol
@@justinbruss3882 Oohhh my, I totally forgot this Walpole great meme from Extra History. Thanks for reminding me :D
I like how you’ve added Brazil’s flag in the back since they joined the war last week. Keep up the great work!
They need a 48 star US flag.
Been watching since like halfway through the great war series, can't emagine it's been 5 years, but it has. Thanks for all the great content.
Thank you for sticking with us for so long!
Imagine the effort these people must have put into producing all this lore.
@Wallace Foster Bennett My $ is on the axis lol.
@Wallace Foster Bennett I dunno. Like, this entire Stalingrad ordeal seems like it's bound to end in an outflanking. The german army is overstretched enough as is, if the soviets tried, they could probably encircle the german units bogged down in Stalingrad itself if the opportunity arises. And of course, that would cause the entire front to collapse and give the soviets a chance to go on the offensive.
As for africa, unless the axis rolls up with some kind of Wunderwaffe to eliminate the Royal Navy in the area, i doubt it'll end well for Rommel now that he got bitchslapped at El Alamein. And if the allies win there, maybe we'll see the war coming back to western europe? I doubt they can do anything towards France until maybe 1944, but take out Italy perhaps? That would be an entire nation out of the war (Albeit not a very useful one)
The pacific theater though, i feel like that might become bloody. The US will have to invade Japan proper eventually, and the japanese don't seem like easily defeated folk. That is, of course, unless the US has some kind of trick up it's sleeve. Remember this Manhattan Project thing that keeps popping up every now and then? Yeah, i feel like that might be a setup to explain away how the US doesn't have to invade Japan afterall.
@ holy pastrami That's some fairly detailed speculation there. Just don't buy TOO many lottery tickets, ok?
@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs I don't know. These wonder weapons Hitler keeps talking about might end the war for them quick.
@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs - Oddly, the Germans did have some kind of Wunderwaffe to eliminate the Royal Navy, the Fritz X, the world's first effective radio-guided bomb. But for some odd reason they didn't push its deployment very much. The first examples will see combat use in 1943 and sink the Italian battleship Roma before she can surrender to the Allies. Had the Americans developed something similar, then all those B-17s and B-24s dropping dumb bombs ineffectively from high altitude might have swept the Pacific clear of Japanese ships, out to a 1600km radius from every Allied-held island with a bomber-capable airstrip.
Thank you very much for this episode. My great uncle, L/Cpl Alfred Austin Abbott who served in the 4th Queens Own Hussars died on 1 September 1942 during the battle of Alam el Halfa. He was the driver in an M3 Stuart. This whole series is fantastic, but this episode has a personal poignancy for me.
Thank you for sharing that with us! We're sad to hear about your Uncle's death in the war. May he rest in peace.
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you. He was a 21 year old country boy who, until he volunteered in December 1939, had never been more than a dozen miles from his home. He rests at the El Alamein war cemetery. Thanks again for your series.
My great uncle Sapper Ronald James Richards who served with the Royal Engineers, 9 Field Sq. He was killed on the 6th of September 1942, during the battle of Alam el Halfa. Similar to your great uncle he was a 21 year old country boy from Somerset who had never really left hom until he volunteered for service in November 1939. He's also buried at El Alamein war cemetery.
My grandfather (his brother) survived the war. He was in the army before the war broke out and was a Sgt based in Libya during 1939. Spent the early part of the war in the East African theater before he ended up being transferred to the 81st West Africa Division and being deployed to Burma.
Very sad as stories like our great uncles are all to common during this period.
My son is not even 3 yet. Seems like a lifetime ago this series started. Gives you a good perspective of the scale of the war that a 2 hour movie can't.
10:48 I do this occasionally in Tarkov. it's also known as "how to lose all your equipment trying to kill Just One More Scav"
Nice :D
@@elektrotehnik94 it was a zero-to-hero pistol run, I had sugar and that leupold scope in my backpack too
4:30 don't worry about the tank losses, you have a factory nearby for replacements
"Stalingrad emerging as the focus for.... everything" Loved that line and that delivery.
The battle that decides the fate of Western Civilization.
@@danielmocsny5066 Nazi Germany was not the "western civilization", there was nothing civilized about the nazis.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Well, if they had won WWII, they would define western civilization, wouldn't they?
@@bludfyre The USA, Latin America and the British Empire would still define western civilization. The nazis would be an anomaly.
@@dragosstanciu9866 If the Germans had been able to end the USSR (how they could do that idk but just for the purposes of the argument) they would have turned their attention to conquering the British. And I don't think they would have been able to hold the home islands against a concentrated German attack...
02:55 That's a Hungarian Toldi with a German APC, wow. What an interesting recording!
honestly, sometimes your ending comments make me tear up, im 20 years old rn and been a ww2 enthusiast myself for the past 8 years but everything i read and seen so far is nothing against your coverage of that utterly brutal conflict, i really love this show and especially your way of telling the story, indy.
Greetings from Switzerland
- Roman
Hello, Roman! We're touched to see how much you appreciate our work. Thank you for the support!
Couldn’t ask for a better birthday gift. Thank you for doing this project and keep up the good work.
Happy Birthday!
Three years: That's how long it took for the British to find a General capable of defeating the Germans.
That's how long it took the British to supply a general, given that the Allies seem to require a several-fold advantage in supplies over the Axis to win anything.
we were much quicker
and we've got Paulus
he's great at defeating Germans
@@danielmocsny5066 didnt the Axis also need a several fold advantage in supplies for their victories?
@@3dcomrade They mostly did - although the Germans even when they were losing and even when they lost an attack generally managed a positive K/D ratio. But that's the Germans and Germans only, they had very good infantry.
Also in 1940 Western front, the Luftwaffe outnumbered the whole Allied airfoce by like 2:1. Air support help, a lot. Just look at what air support will do for the Allies in 1944 Wetern Europe or what Air supremacy did for the American coalition in 1991 against Iraq in Kuwait and in 2003 invasion of Iraq.
@@SuperLusername 2003 Iraq is more of a corrupt system in its final stage of decay being touched by a hard hand and collapses. The others are fair assesments homever
interesting. in this point of history my grandfather was marching with the italian army in direction of the caucasus mountains. he will be redirected somewhere south of stalingrad in the next weeks.
Never let an Italian watch your flank braawww will only end in tears & encirclment
@@pajo103 Patrick, i Hope you are joking. It was an outcome everybody would predict. The italian divisions were not prepared to withstand the force of thousands of tanks charging straingt into theyr Lines without AT guns and german panzer korps as support. Support that was many times promised, but never arrived when needed.
@@matteoorlandi856 amen, The IAIR I think only had tank destroyers but not in the numbers to stop droves of T34's
"World is a big place and it might be too big for such a dark dreams, to become reality" - I think this is on of the best quote, that describes WW2 - thank you for this :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
3 years already. I remember when this started and I thought "it's gonna be a real journey to follow this series" and now it's been 3 years. Insane
Wow, the flow of this was just great. I had to check the time when I saw the episode was coming to an end. I didn't believe it was 17 minutes long. This series just keeps getting better.
Map quality amazing as ever! I feel like it's been improving over the past 3 years. I honestly can't believe it's been that long already.
Thank you!
Eastory is just amazing, this guys work and dedication deserve endless praise.
Ok, gotta say it.
This is one of the best, most enjoyable series I've ever watched on TH-cam.
I have to say I haven't found one thing to disagree with in your reports, and believe me, I'm a pedantic PIA.
There's ALWAYS some niggling little detail I can pick at. But...nope.
And believe me I've been reading about WW II since high school.
If I had a nickel for every time the Saratoga was Torpedoed I would have two nickel. Which isn’t a lot but is strange how much it happened
Meme is lame
What about if you had a nickel for every time the Japanese "sank" the Enterprise
@@ieuanhunt552 that would be 3 nickles.
"Isn't a lot"??!! Why, back in my day, if you had two nickels, you were set for life!!
@@nozecone Back in the day? What day? A summer's day in 1810 when James Madison was in the White House?
A little bit of trivia...If anyone is thinking why Montgomery, a British General, is wearing an Australian slouch hat, he actually grew up in Tasmania, Australia from the age of 2 to 14 learnt how to skin rabbits and possums and was influenced to be a soldier there before leaving to the UK in his teens. In an interview in Australia post war he once stated he felt "almost Australian".
Senior generals can wear whatever they want, and at times Montgomery could almost be mistaken for a scruffy private in the Tank Corps, when he wore its black beret. Rommel tended to dress more according to German regulations, but did wear captured British gas goggles and a plaid scarf.
@@stevekaczynski3793True but in this case it is undeniably his childhood connection to Australia and wanting to be a soldier at that age that influenced the wearing of a slouch hat at later times I'd suggest. Monty says as much himself in this clip.. th-cam.com/video/PP5f93nYuxQ/w-d-xo.html
Half way through boys! Can’t wait too see the rest of this historical treasure. Congrats to the Time Ghost team on 3 years of this show. Excited for the future.
Thank you! We're excited too, and glad to see you sticking with us!
When the WW1 channel was in the 1914-18 phase I felt like time crawled in comparison to this war which is already 3 years old and basically half way through.
Time seems to fly away when you get older and have Covid around 🙃
Really in the scope of history, such a short, yet devastating and history shaping time.
This has been one hell of a ride both for the warring sides and for you the production team.
Indeed it has. Thanks for sticking with us through it!
Poor Saratoga. The US Navy’s most impressive torpedo sponge. Amazingly her heavy Battlecruiser Hull gave her the fortitude to survive the dreaded long lances. Her frequent stays in dry dock did see to it that she got frequent upgrades. Thus she became the US Navy’s second CV(N) Night Fighting Carrier after Enterprise. When next we see her, After she leaves dry dock this time she will be one half of one of the stranger marriages in military history. Hopefully the gang will cover the strange tale of the USS Robin.
Took something special to put her down.
@@spikespa5208 Heck not even a Nuke sunk her. They still had to pump a few Torpedos into her.
These are the best videos of the titanic struggle between Russia and Germany! Awesome job
we're almost exactly at the half way point now, good work on this series.
We're past the halfway point!
@@SamAronow ALEX JONES IS NEVER WRONG!
August 30th was the half point
Montgomery showing previous 8th Army commanders how it's done by actually paying attention to his adversary's tactics and planning accordingly. It seems so simple but I suppose that's the power of hindsight.
His lack of purpose forfeits an opportunity to defeat the DAK at its lowest ebb - maybe it was wise, we'll never know, but his methodical, attritional strategy will likely cost many lives yet by giving Rommel an opportunity to rebuild his armour reserve and create a defensive line in depth. Auchinleck was dismissed because he refused to take the offensive soon enough for Churchill (who is every bit as inept as Hitler) - but Monty uses Auk's defensive strategy at Alamein; he may well come to find that like Auk, his best-laid plans may not mean much if his subordinates are not up to the task of executing them well - he's got a lot of work to do yet, I guess we'll watch his career with great interest!
@@onylra6265 I think that has it backwards. We KNOW Montgomery's strategy and tactics were successful. He won. Between August 1942 and April 1943 he inflicted a Stalingrad sized disaster on the Wehrmacht while taking sustainable casualties himself. He did that by deliberately staying in balance and eschewing dramatic and potentially risk filled offensives.
Knowing what we know now, and with a clear sight of the other side of the hill, it is possible to identify some occasions where a more "gambling" approach had paid off. But that has the benefit of hindsight. In 1942/3, the British Army was fully aware that Rommel had the tactical skill and command bravery to strike at unexpected moments and in unexpected ways, and that those chaotic moments could lead to disaster. Montgomery's whole strategy was to take those moments off the table. Yes, it is possible the end might have been achieved with fewer casualties. But it is also possible that over confidence could lead to disaster. It did in many previous battles, and almost did for the Americans in Tunisia.
The error is to see 8th Army's victory as preordained, and thus underrate the care and caution that made the outcome relatively certain. It could well have ended up another false dawn, or worse, a Gazala battle.
It helps when you know what that enemy is going to do.
@@onylra6265 'Lack of purpose'? That's a gross oversimplification. We've seen EXACTLY what happens when the 8th Army does what you suggested: they get caught in a trap and chewed up by superior Axis AT gun and tank fire (especially 88s). That would be repeating the same mistakes again and again and since we're dealing with someone who knows exactly what he's doing (and not some Italian WW1 Chief of Staff...), That's a big nono. Even if the Panzer Army Africa was at it's 'lowest ebb', that wouldn't stop them from turning the tables on the British, as they've done again and again. Even Rommel was often frustrated by Monty's lack of interest in driving into his AT traps as other British commanders have. In the end, Monty did have a purpose: not getting absolutely curbstomped by the DAK's old tricks, dishing out a lot of damage, and holding the line while preparing for the actual offensive.
Even more importantly, Monty seems to be the first British Commander who not only is aware of the superiority of the enemy in a mobile battle, he's also the first to not play along to their tune. The attritional strategy chosen for Alamein was, all things considered, the right call with regards to the battlefield terrain and the strengths and weaknesses of Rommel's army. Costly? It was. But considering the alternative (fighting a swirling mobile battle where Romeel could litterally run rings around his forces), it was the correct decision at the moment.
I'm sure Indy and the gang will cover more on Monty's less successful adventures (you know the one..) but there's no denying his major role in winning North Africa for the Allies.
@@jameshannagan4256 As Stalin and Freyberg have so gracefully shown, it also helps when you don't ignore what intelligence says about what the enemy will do.
During Battle of Alam el Halfa Montgomery literally manipulated all of Rommel's Panzer Army movements and attacks as if he planned and commanded enemy army himself. Planting the fake map on No Mans Land for the enemy to find ten days before enemy attack started that falsely showed minefields were thin and full of gaps in southern sector between Himmamiyat and Alam Nayil ridge (they were actually not , there were two very thick mine belts) , that the terrain here was suitable for armor and tracked vehicles (the terrain was actually sticky sand that would swallow tracks and wheels of motorised vehicles and halt Afrikakorps motorised columns) and this sector was weakly held (Montgomery actually concentrated 44th British Infantry Division , 2nd New Zealand Division , 7th and 10th Armored Divisions on Alam Nayil and Alam el Halfa ridge and its eastern flank) , and ordered his forces to meet the enemy in prepared static positions , tanks on hull down positions , artillery and massed anti tank guns concentrated on a full kill zone south of Alam el Halfa because he was aware that Eighth Army still had to go a long way in mobile battle tactics and operations compared to Panzer Army skill so he banned any wild charges that lured and destroyed Eighth Army armor on enemy anti tank gun screens in previous battles due to their bad commanders and their inability to impose authority on armored formations. (Before and after this battle , Montgomery clashed armor generals a lot-well he actually clashed with a lot more people- because of that but since he had the all the authority and the autoracy of army commander re established , he relieved officers who were insubordinate or badly performing officers without mercy) And he used Desert Air Arm extremely well and adding their own lethal firepower to the Alam el Halfa battle where he lured Panzer Army Afrika and caught them on open. Montgomery was so confident of outcome when his chief of Staff Brigadier de Guingand woke him up on night on 30/31 August that enemy offensive started , he remarked "Excellent , could not be better" and went back to sleep.
Rommel at the other hand , finally met a British general who did not play according to his rules and not aiding defeat of his own forces first time. On September 2 , under Desert Air Force bombing and strafing and British armor and artillery safely pounding his forces at Alam el Halfa from a safe distance he screamed to his staff in frustriation "The swine (Montgomery) is not attacking !". His Chief of Staff Bayerlein later remarked "After Montgomery arrived , the war in the desert stopped being a game for us"
Great guy
Helped Monty having overwhelming resources in literally everything, If they had the same stuff ze Afrika Korps wins every time
@@pajo103 Then why don't you invent a time machine , go back to 1942 , convince Montgomery to give up most of his assets in name of sportsmanship during in time of total war ? Or even better , make magic wand , make half of Eighth Army disappear , so they would fight on "equal" terms ? What do you think ? Woıuld that satisfy ze "Wehrboro" fans ?
If none of them works there are some good real time strategy games including campaign in North Arfica. And by the way Montgomery did not have an overwhelming strength in everything , another populist myth made up to look Rommel and Afrikakorps like romantic doomed figures.
@@pajo103 bit of a daft comment really. What people had at the time is what they had.
You are fighting a war. You want every advantage you can bloody well have.
This wasn’t a computer game. Decisions generals, soldiers, politicians would make would determine how the world would look when victory was achieved.
@@dudeofvalor9294 Even more comically , when US Navy or USMC attacked remote Pacific atolls with 10 times more men with colossal firepower superiorty from air and sea to fight against isolated garrisons over and over or when Red Army launched massive offensive operations with huge ten or twenty times superiorty in tanks , guns , aircraft , or when six German divisions (half of them panzer divisions) with total air cover and support crossed Meuse river against a hastily trained reserve garrison of two French divisions with low quality in May 1940 or US Army with overwhelming superiorty attacked German positions isolated like Anzio , Brest , Aachen or Fort Driant (later failed but no Hollywood movie made about it) , we do not hear any critism but Montgomery used overwhelming firepower superiorty to reduce casaulties in frontal attacks he had to implement due to lack of options ? Noooo , heresy , unsportsmanlike ! And Montgomery had overwhelming superiorty nonsense is another populist over exagerration by the way. In frontal attacks against fortified enemy positions or defensive operations you need three to one numerical superiorty in numbers , Montgomery's command in Eighth Army in 1942-43 or 21st Army Group in 1944 had less than that usually and had to compansate that deficiancy with firepower and proper logistics. Compared to him Neil Ritchie had almost twice more number of men , tanks and guns than Panzer Army and he lost Benghazi , Gazala , Tobruk in 1942 and Auchinleck having more resources still and supply depots in Alexandria close by , lost Mersa Matruh and failed all of his counter attacks in First Battle of Alamein July 1942 and they delivered all supply depots in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh intact to Rommel.
The North Africa front is a spectacularly constant back and forth. Let me recom:
- the British steamroll the unarmored Italians
- Rommel arrives and steamrolls the British, but gets stuck in Tobruz
- the British get reinforced and steamroll Rommel
- Rommel gets reinforced and steamrolls the British, but gets stuck in Al-Alamein
Meanwhile, Cyrenaica have changed hands like four times.
That is a DENSE episode - so much information packed into it. Props to the team that put it together!
Thank you!
Thank you for calling the Kokoda Track campaign exactly that, I didn't think your already extremely impressive series could rise in my estimation but it has.
Thank you!
So we are past the first El-Alamein. Can't wait for the sequel.
Yes we've had first El-Alamein, but what about second El-Alamein?
@@GaldirEonai Operation Market Garden?
THE LIONS OF EL ALAMEIN
So Many people don't know about the Huge Role of Italy in the battle of el Alamein and their bravery that allowed Rommel and the Afrikacorps to retreat Indy Can you please cover the rearguard actions preformed during the retreat after the second battle of el Alamein ,The Tenacity of the outnumbered outgunned Italian units allowed Erwin Rommel's Forces to escape total destruction at the start of the battle the Ariette division with the help from a bersaglieri and units from the folgore divisions held back Montgomery 13rd korps long enough to prevent it from reaching the main frontline , the armoured division vittorio went on the attack on the British 133 infantry brigade , the attack annihilated the British unti Killing 60 men and knocking out their exposed anti tank guns and capturing 300 on the 2nd of November the 9th British Armoured brigade launched another attack but lost 70 of it's 94 tanks to bersaglieri artillery , Erwin Rommel Praised the sacrifice of the Italian divisions covering his withdrawal , the last Italian unit to fight At el Alamein was the folgore division of elite paratroopers this is when the lion truly roared holding back 3 British divisions and 1 free French brigade with little ammunition and almost no Anti tank guns the folgore lured the attackers and then attacked from all sides using Molotov cocktails and grenades costing the allies 120 tanks , The Italians retreated slowly protecting the rear of the Afrikakorps always refusing to surrender ,
We Must Honor the Men that were the lions of the folgore "Winston Churchill" the Italians strategic ,doctrinal , and logistical and leadership and equipment and weaponry flaws were big
When the Italian forces had Good equipment and Leadership they Scored victories or delayed defeats fought with Courage and fought well .
@@blastoise114 I dont think he knows about Second El-Alemain, Pip.
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 when the New Zealanders over ran Ariete division’s artillery most of the Italians died at their guns. Can’t expect more than that. Rommel had a lot of respect for the Italian soldier. Less so for many of their officers.
3 years of making our weekends interesting for free, can't thank you enough. My favourite channel and narrator on youtube hands down. Would like Pearl Harbour like coverage of an event again.
You will have to wait until DDay
Im happy that a detailed series of the D-day invasion is on the way also it would be nice if a detailed coverage was made about the battle of Berlin in any case keep up the good work always look forward to new episodes...
Thanks
I am very excited for more coverage of the battle of Stalingrad through the months of September and Oktober
@Fabian Kirchgessner Es ist immer wieder schön dich wieder zu treffen mein Freund :D
Starting from WW1 to 3 years in WW2, its amazing to see the journey the crew have made…looking forward to many more!
Thank you! Glad you stuck with us on this journey!
Bad news for Paulus - Vasily Zaytzev is on his way toward Stalingrad
Bad news for Paulus - you’ve taken Stalingrad ...
Glad to see he didn't he the death of the nation he served, he died 11 days before its fall (Dec. 15, 1991)
I’ve learned more about ww2 from this channel then I have any other documentary, thank you Indy and gang.
You're welcome!!
Tremendous work by the entire team these past three years. You realize this means you've reached the halfway point of the war and this project?
Thank you! Yes, we do, it's a big milestone for us!
"What if Rommel goes where we don't want him to?"
"Just tell him no"
The worst week happened today. 😭😭😭 We got annexed. At least you mentioned us Indy! And thanks for mentioning the strike as well.
You're about to have a nice surprise at the end of the video today :)
@@gunman47 Yep!
the Germans were short on fuel so annexing Luxembourg is logical
fuel is so cheap there
sorry - just couldn't resist making this joke, annexing Lux was one of so many low points of German history
Pulled a general strike against the Nazis! Good job guys👍
@@kleinweichkleinweich I studied German, and to a certain extent Russian, at the University of Trier, just a short distance from Luxembourg. I knew people who would cross the border from Germany because cigarettes were cheaper in Luxembourg. I remember purchasing white wine in Luxembourg that was cheaper than in Germany, though that whole area is wine-growing.
"Rommel was dealing with fearsome logistical problems. His armour low on fuel, his artillery was rationed in the number of rounds it could fire and the RAF was making serious inroads on his supply convoys. Just as the Italian advance of two years earlier had lengthened its own supply lines and shortened those of the British, so too at this moment the advantages enjoyed by Rommel's enemy began to stack up, not least in cutting the flying time for many RAF squadrons based in the Delta." - Mark Urban "The Tank War" (on the Battle of Alam Halfa)
Rommel at the start of Alam El Halfa attack had seven days worth of fuel stocked at his depots at Alamein , within that seven days British did not give any opening to him to be exploited by Panzer Army anymore unlike in Gazala or First Battle of Alamein , his logistical problems were both overrated and caused by his own previous over arrogance and over confidence to be next conquerer of Egypt by overextending his rear supply lines to breaking point. Once he checked in First Battle of Alamein in July 1942 and all booty captured in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh dried up , he should have pulled Panzer Army back to defend Libya where he could do his mobile war tricks again and and again against Eighth Army under Luftwaffe air cover according to his original orders from OKW but being promoted to Field Marshal rank without necessary experience in young age got to his head with his obsession to be conquerer of Egypt and instead stuck in Alamein immobile and static under total RAF air superiorty against Eighth Army which was way better schooled and supplied in static set piece operations.
@@merdiolu Personally I'm not so sure that Rommel had the luxury of being able to pull back and defend, not only were the allies increasing in strength and equipment, but in addition his own supplies from Italy were being sunk, perhaps if he'd never advanced in the first place he could have held for longer, but given the supply situation I believe that Rommel realized that the only way to win was to defeat the 8th army as soon as possible, otherwise they would simply increase in strength relative to his own.
@@ecophreak1 On the contrary , before Pedestal Convoy reached Malta , almost all Axis supply ships (%80 of them or more) were being delivered to Tripoli and Benghazi intact in 1942 summer you can read , "Malta Strikes Back" by Ken Ford or "Ship Busters" by Bruce Tucker to confirm that and that was the maximum effort Italian shipping capacity could manage to hold Libya not attack Egypt , he had luxury of not advancing recklessly into Egypt (just because he captured lots of logistical booty in Tobruk does not mean fuel and other supplies created out of thin air in future) Because of captured Britis supply depots intact in Tobruk and Mersa Matruh , Panzer Army in a exhausted and understrength state could advancd into Egypt , that blinded Rommel the necessity of a supply line. And Eighth Army (especially after Monty took over in August) was vary of a mobile battle which a pursuit would involve. Panzer Army could lure British armor to anti tank gun screen in deserrts of Libya and Cyreneica just like he did over and over if they became over ambitous since till Montgomery put a strong leash on them , British armored brigade division generals were not that bright. Rommel could enforce mobile battle where his forces excelled over British again and again who were still could not comprehend all arms combined arms warfare till August-September 1942. Instead just to be seen good on popular propaganda that Axis was holding a piece of Egypt he put Panzer Army in static immobile posittions at Alamein line to be crushed and after being crushed in November , still he made a good retreat with a fragment of Panzer Army at the cost of abandoning Italians.
"But Eighth Army was getting stronger" is a convinient excuse for Rommel/Wehrboro fans. Numerical superiorty is an useful advantage but does not guarantee everything unless you have a way colossal superiorty in quantity like Persians against Spartans at Thermopolyee. (and even then Persians had to outflank Spartan positions)
I appreciate the U-boat tonnage update. Maybe a merchant marine casualty count next to the tonnage count?
I also hope this will happen for the US submarine campaign against Japan
Me too I find the US submarine campaign is often overlooked
@@jasondouglas6755 I'd wait until next summer for much focus on the USN subs. They're still having teething issues at this point, especially with the Mk14 torpedo.
@@jasondouglas6755...which is truly unfortunate, as the most successful submarine campaign in human history was not the one waged by the Germans in the Atlantic, it was the US submarine campaign waged against Japan.
By war's end US submarines will be responsible for 55% of Japanese merchant ship losses, and was the single biggest factor in the collapse of the Japanese economy late in the war. US submarines had succeeded in completely cutting the supply chain to an island nation, something the U-boat campaigns failed to do in both world wars. US submarines were also responsible for sinking 30% of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Give it time. Those Mk14 torpedoes are a right b**ch at the moment.
what i really like about these series is that each front has their own music theme like pacific one quite unique!
I believe in order to prepare the episode about Leningrad under siege you need to use materials collected by Mark Solonin. He compiled a unique list of original documents proving that starvation in Leningrad was the result of a planned soviet schema to get the material values from the population of Leningrad in exchange for food using the black market as an intermediary. The amount of funds collected from the starving population had the magnitude of the Soviet Union's pre-war defence budget.
Thats an asshole thing to do but necessary I suppose
I agree. Mark Solonin is the most credible historian of the German-russian war of 1941-1945
It would be really important to show that the magnitude of crimes commited by the soviets against local population exceeded magnitude of crimes commited by nazis.
@@viktorkorol477 Please stop playing genocide olympics
It just dehumanizes those dead as potraying them as nothing more than numbers
The only comment i have seen from him is the reason why such catastrophe is possible. The Winter War, a reasoning for the Finns to retake their stolen land. Which if never happened might spare the population of the city from the suffering
You better give me some comments from the man of such view you said. He is a repuutable historian, dont stain his name in the comments. Youre a Muslim, dont lie
I'm a TimeGhost supporter, yet I only watch these videos on TH-cam. Glad y'all are doing it goes really well with my covid reading. Love you guys keep it up!
Thank you for your support! Glad you enjoy our content.
Hard to believe it's already been 3 years since the start of this war when Indy was winding down the Great War. Time flies! My brother and I were both single back then, and now we're both married and he has a kid! A lot can happen in 3 years!
Congratulations to both of you!
I just started to read "Stalingrad" by Andrey Eremneko (the chief of Stalinfrad's front). The book events begin from August '42. Not sure if it's available in English, but I definitely recommend reading it for everyone interested in the Stalingrad battle.
I would be so pleased to see a ww2 special dedicated to the New Zealanders during ww2 in particular the Maori Battalions, they are worth the spotlight!
Well there was one Maori Battalion and they weren’t regarded by NZ officers as the best unit in the Division. But yes, a special would be good. Freyberg’s story is an epic of its own.
@@Colonel_Blimp Yo, 28th Maori was the most decorated NZ battalion of the war, though?
@@lewisirwin5363 yes. Not quite the same thing.
Well done, as usual. Thanks for putting these videos out. Love all the old videos of the equipment (aircraft, ships, tanks, etc.).
Can you maybe do a quick summary on numbers of killed, wounded, MIAs and so on? Great video as always!
Damn, I like Monty! I like the restraint and self discipline that he shows in his plans and after success. How he didnt get caught up in the greed and pursue, with great risk, Rommel from Alamein.
Because he knew his army's capabilities , strengths and weaknesses , advantages and disadvantages better than previous amateur part time precedessors in Eighth Army and played his hand accordingly. British Army was not German Army. Its aspects were unique. US Army or Red Army were not German Army. Their aspects , improvement , operational culture and development are unique just like British Commonwealth. In populist war histories , military benchmark is always taken from German standarts (which were then adapted by NATO after the war that causes that misapprehension especially in Western oriented history narratives) as if everyone else had an obligation to operate just like them under same numbers and conditions and mindset. The strengths and weaknesses of British Commonwealth armies were different from Germans and Montgomery knew that. He extracted maximum performance from that army made up civilians in uniform , minimised casaulties by companseting with firepower and rarely gave Germans any oppurtunity to exploit. He played safe and cautious sometimes yes but because of that he ended the war in Field Marshal rank forcing the Germans to sign Unconditional Surrender in Elbe 1945
@@merdiolu Exactly, that's why I like him. He may be the reason the three brothers of a British family meet back home 2 Christmasses later than under Patton - for example. But, he is going to make sure that ALL three borthers meet back home at Chrtismass.
Can you please do the 80 years war next? So i can watch this show the rest of my life. 😁
Thank you for the suggestion 😂
@@WorldWarTwo What about the 100 Years War - year by year?
Indy: Gustavo Adolphus did what ...?
@@kleinweichkleinweich I picture him starting each episode by pigeon mail
Start small -- the Seven Years' War (1756-63). Arguably the first world war.
Hi Indy
Its been three years since war broke out..
So much atrocities,pain,death,unhumane behaviour...
What i learn in history class just a world war happened two sides fought each other and killed and war ended..
But hidden behind this war massive killing with no mercy ,never heard before.
Because of you and your team,i have learned lot...
Congratulations for covering this gigantic series for three years..
Always want to see all your videos..
Thanks team...
Thank you for your kind words! We're glad that this series has helped you learn more!
Immense credit to the team for somehow never missing a beat, even during a global pandemic, the show goes on!
Guys, I have a suggestion for your next project (or side project to this one). What all major (and other) countries newspapers wrote every day of the war. I am sure Indi with his charisma and artistic talent will make this project extremely interesting.
To feel that war through newspapers of that time from different countries perspective is to feel the media reflection of these societies attitude, propaganda, values, mood, delusions and hopes.
Though of cause it will be not easy task to do.
Germans finally reach limits of their advance. Stalingrad and El Alamein never will be taken. There is just too few men and tanks at too long supply lines end, and enemy is finally starting to learn the art fo mobile armor warfare. How long til they turn the tables on Axis and start encircling entire armies themselves?
Don’t sell the Germany army short, it’s still undefeated and is more than capable of conducting a fighting retreat, if the allies act to hastily they could inadvertently undo any advantage they have gained.
@@MikeJones-qn1gz of course it will take more than even two entire lost armies to break Axis... But retreat will be all left for them sooner or later.
this video was released in my birthday
We wish you a belated Happy Birthday!
@@WorldWarTwo thank you!
There's a movie called "das boot" that details life on the german U-boats at the time. Well made, i recommend you check it out.
You should do a focus on the minor Axis powers on the Eastern Front. Romania in particular made a large contribution to Fall Blau. Soviets of course focused on Germany's allies armies when they encircled Stalingrad. Also doing biographies on Antonescu and others would a good thing, there are very little bio videos about them!
Answered to this request in another comment of yours.
This is almost exactly the half-way point of the war. It started three years ago and will continue almost three more years, if the conclusion is counted as mid-August 1945 when Japan surrenders. Approximately 15,000 human beings, mostly unarmed noncombatants murdered by armed German and Japanese soldiers, were killed each day in a war that lasted a little over 2,000 days. Here at the midpoint, were the Germans, Japanese, and Italians beginning to sense that their glory days were over, and for the next three years, it would be a grinding, agonizing retreat back to ruins of their homelands?
The Axis should realize it at this point, but they'll definitely realize it after their string of defeats in early 1943. Particularly as those defeats will have come even before the US war economy has fully geared up.
cringe
I dont think there was anything to realize except for the Japanese.
Germans have not yet been stopped in USSR, nor is London 100% sure Suez won't be visited by Rommel within the next few months. The second happy time in the Atlantic is still going on.
Guadalcanal is famous now - after 1942, but still was a minor skirmish at that point. Japan has lost 4 carriers, but no one, except the IJN, Tojo and Hirohito knows about that.
There is literally nothing to worry about yet for an average Hans.
@@SuperLusername But perhaps the trepidations were beginning to be felt, because their aura of invincibility was shattered. Germans had been stopped for six weeks near Smolensk, halted at Leningrad, halted then beaten back 100 miles and more from Moscow, surrounded at Demyansk, and blocked short of the significant oil fields of the Caucasus. Japanese navy losing 1/3rd of its carrier force at Midway, and being turned back at Midway and Port Moresby. Now on the defensive in Guadalcanal. Germany, Japan, and Italy must have sensed that the easy conquests during their early surprise offensives were over, and the war of attrition against the three mightiest nations of the Earth (USA, USSR, and British Empire), which they were poorly equipped to wage, was on.
@@SuperLusername The U.S. Navy certainly knew about the loss of those four Japanese aircraft carriers, if, for no other reason, Ensign George Gay had a front-row life ring and survived to be debriefed. Met the guy in 1986 at Brown Field in Otay Mesa, CA.
I see the Dogs of War are busy this week. Thanx for what y'all do here.
Glad you enjoy it!
The terrible twos finally end, with its discovery and (over)use of the word "no."
Axis: okay, on the docket we've got crushing British morale by bombing historical sites, control of Egypt, taking over Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad and the oil fields to the south, and decisive victories at the Coral Sea and Midway, destroying the US Pacific fleet.
Allies: No.
Axis: umm... which one?
Allies: No.
As the third year starts, we can look forward to gaining the motor skill to walk backwards, and of course temper tantrums.
Been watching since the beginning of the WW1 series, love what you guys do! Keep up the great work!
Thank you for being a fan for so long!
That map was brilliant deception, shows that Monty definitely wasn't just lucky
Yes but nothing was mentioned whether this had any effect. I wonder who found it and what they did. Regardless it does highlight that the British we're very fond of this kind of stuff and used it often and sometimes with dramatic results like Patton's fake invasion army
@@Veronicastacxj even if it didn't exactly work, as you said it shows a level of deception that a lot of other armies do not go too. Like having a fake plane crash and using the body of a homeless welshman too stand in as a high ranking agent with plans that the invasion was to take place at Calais
@@Alex-cw3rz Planting fake maps or plans wasnt exactly rare, though. I mean by this time many assumed that a found plan is likely planted, like the plan for the german summer offensive this year.
@@bond0815 very true , so the Britih plan was not to TELL the Germans but to SUGGEST and reinforce existing assumptions ,
Tell the enemy what he WANTS to hear and he will believe .
@@Veronicastacxj they found the map according to German writer Paul Carell and based their offensive on that map
It's funny how fall blau is always portrayed as an unstoppable drive that boggs down in the ruined streets of stalingrad
I am an Eastern Front anorak and even so that was the impression I had.
"Rommel failed"
Impossible-
I your channel!! It’s the only thing I’ve watched over the last 4 days. You have a very intriguing way of presenting that makes me actually want to listen and learn! Please keep the amazing content coming, I’m off to join your Patreon! Gotta support this anyway I can!
Thank you so much! Your support means everything to us as we wouldn't be able to make these videos without it!
small detail here: the italian 133 armored division was the "littorio" the name is missing on the graphics. really small detail btw :)
Thank you for pointing that out!
3 years... my 97y/o grandfather enjoys your channel. He ran a 3" gun crew on the uss newyork BB34 in the pacific. They got hit by a kamikaze off of Okinawa to minimal effect. He says he still has a piece of that plane he made in to a bracelet.
We're so happy to hear that your grandfather is also a fan! Thank you for sharing that with us!
15:41 Possibly the worst moment of the war so far
@@Lex-dw7ng Obviously a joke mate
thanks for putting out such quality content!
can anyone point me to the episode where the #s of lend lease equipment are covered? It's not the ww2 in numbers special episode - I'm talking about the segment where indy discusses the allied shipments of arms, materiel, medical and raw resources to the soviets
Is this the one you're looking for? th-cam.com/video/nUzCFlLL8N4/w-d-xo.html
3 years...
Halfway through...
I've been watching this for 157 weeks? Time flies.
Oh boy do I love Wednesdays
The third year of excitement. Thank you Indy, Sparty & crew. Still love the show. Cheers!
Glad you like it!
September 4, 1942.
Lance Corporal John Evans of the 44th Home Counties Division is now on the front in the El Alamein sector, part of the 8th Army commanded by Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery. He is stationed on the Alam el Halfa Ridge, ready to defend it from a German-Italian offensive, which comes this week. The Battle of Alam el Halfa begins and ends as the German panzers fail to capture the ridge, having run into a minefield and taken a beating from the well prepared British defenders. This is John’s first battle in North Africa, but his journey in the desert sands has only just begun.
Private First Class Hinata Nakamura of the 2nd Division lands on Guadalcanal west of the Matanikau River today. Having been part of the Aoba detachment, split from the rest of the 2nd Division in August, he reached Rabaul in preparation to land in New Guinea, but he was instead sent to Guadalcanal. This fateful campaign on the large tropical Solomon island will show Hinata horrors and destruction as well as bravery and courage he could never have possibly imagined. As it stands now, he is eager to use the skills he learned in the Dutch East Indies campaign to help recapture Guadalcanal and bring honour to his family and the Empire.
I can't believe it. I've been watching since the beginning of the Great War.
congrats... I didn't find this until "1916" I believe...
@@robertkras5162 I'm just a little bit older.
I didn't become aware of the Great War channel until early 2016, but otherwise, the same.
Great episode as always. I'm wondering what the Japanese are doing in Burma. We haven't heard anything from that sector of the world since May. Additionally how are Mao and Chiang Kai-shek doing fighting back the Japanese? Not much has been said about them since the Burma road as been closed.
There is no fighting in burma as its the rainy monsoon season but that should be ending soon.
Same goes for the central part of the eastern front. Haven’t hear about it in months despite huge fightings at rzhev. It might be on their Twitter maybe but they also said in the past they focus on what’s most important at a given time
You'll see more about Burma as the autumn turns to winter. Same with China- although we've covered the Japanese "punishment" attacks in China this summer primarily on War Against Humanity, Japan has had its hands full mainly with the Allies this summer/fall.
Congratulations on making it offcially halfway through WW2. You guys should be proud of yourselves in presenting the most comprehensive information on this tragedy in world history. I am so honored to be a part of the Time Ghost Army. When you guys are truly finished, you must create a Blu-Ray, DVD etc set that encompasses every show you have done on this conflict, including BETWEEN 2 WARS, WARS AGAINST HUMANITY, OUT OF THE FOXHOLES, everything else and an AFTERMATH series which im sure you guys are already working on. Indy Neidel, you are a great presenter and i look forward to your episodes every week. Spartacus Olson continues to show his sadness for WAR and Anna is just a gem for OOTF. Love all of you guys. NEVER FORGET!
Know this: in few years same roaring planes which had sown terror and indiscriminate death to population of Berlin became heralds of hope and life as they brought in fuel and food in amounts thought impossible to achieve without rail or ship.
We're really glad you said that! This war has been alot of work to cover and it's nice to know people care so much about it! 🙂
THE LIONS OF EL ALAMEIN
So Many people don't know about the Huge Role of Italy in the battle of el Alamein and their bravery that allowed Rommel and the Afrikacorps to retreat Indy Can you please cover the rearguard actions preformed during the retreat after the second battle of el Alamein ,The Tenacity of the outnumbered outgunned Italian units allowed Erwin Rommel's Forces to escape total destruction at the start of the battle the Ariette division with the help from a bersaglieri battalionand units from the folgore divisions held back Montgomery 13th korps long enough to prevent it from reaching the main frontline , the armoured division vittorio went on the attack on the British 133 infantry brigade , the attack annihilated the British unti Killing 60 men and knocking out their exposed anti tank guns and capturing 300 on the 2nd of November the 9th British Armoured brigade launched another attack but lost 70 of it's 94 tanks to bersaglieri artillery , Erwin Rommel Praised the sacrifice of the Italian divisions covering his withdrawal , the last Italian unit to fight At el Alamein was the folgore division of elite paratroopers this is when the lion truly roared holding back 3 British divisions and 1 free French brigade with little ammunition and almost no Anti tank guns the folgore lured the attackers and then attacked from all sides using Molotov cocktails and grenades costing the allies 120 tanks , The Italians retreated slowly protecting the rear of the Afrikakorps always refusing to surrender ,
We Must Honor the Men that were the lions of the folgore "Winston Churchill" the Italians strategic ,doctrinal , and logistical and leadership and equipment and weaponry flaws were big
When the Italian forces had Good equipment and Leadership they Scored victories or delayed defeats fought with Courage and fought well .
Bravery on behalf of evil is not worth honoring or remembering.
Don't you know that there is no good and bad in war there is just young men serving their country following orders of old men who hate each other and make stupid ideologies and wage war on each other , If you don't respect your enemy you are not worth of fighting him in battle keep that in mind the British highly respected Erwin Rommel and the Afrikacorps and the Italian army as well because the good way they treated prisoners and tenacious fighting there
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 There is plenty of evil in war. Much less good is to be found, but it exists as well.
One side in this war was waging a genocidal war of extermination, and the other was not.
@@lycaonpictus9662 but Warcrimes were committed by both sides and everyone knows that north Africa had the least amount of Warcrimes so you can't you just admire both sides struggle and bravery in North Africa ??
@@cheriefsadeksadek2108 Rommel stole their trucks and abandoned them to destruction to make good his own escape, then blamed them for his fuckups later. They ended-up as a roadbump for a vastly superior enemy all so some arrogant Germans serving Hitler to escape to cause more mischief another day and they were annihilated. Most of them surrendered (intelligently and honorably). Courage in the name of dishonour and futility is nothing to admire - that is fascist fanaticism.
I thought this before and I still think your program should be mandatory for every high school history class in all countries.
Please keep up the great work. Thank you.
Thank you, Blaine!
Remember Halder the great he thought Operation Barbarossa would be done quickly. But hey let me alter history so other people take the blame
Now you know how it feels to be hung up on Indy! 😂😂 even If the lines were cut 😉
Seriously though I've loved every second of these videos. Keep up the great work!
Thank you!