Operation Uranus is kicking off, the Germans are scrambling in Africa, and yet on paper it seemed that just a few weeks ago that they had conquered more territory than anyone else in Europe. Why such the sudden change? Did a turning point take place? Well, sort of, but again only on paper. The problems the Germans are encountering right now are the result of issues which have been building up, and making themselves evident, over the course of years. The German military has logistical issues, production issues, and command issues. The Red Army, rather than being "degenerate sub humans" is infact one of the most effective fighting forces on earth. We can only understand all of this if we look at the war holistically. That is after all why this channel is called TimeGhost (Zeitgeist). History does not happen in a vacuum, and if you don't believe us then check inside your vacuum cleaner now. So what is the big picture here for the Germans? Was Stalingrad a turning point in a decisive sense, or was it merely the point at which the Germans turned around and started going home? PS: Thank you for noticing those few slight errors in this episode's maps. They'll soon be fixed!
While the timing is kind of amazing of turn arounds everywhere, I think while it wasn't obvious at the time, the Reich's deficiencies meant they couldn't regain the momentum of the offensive when they lost it - there was nothing behind the first punch at this point, or at least nothing comparable.
"The Soviets are in no position to mount any sort of major offensive. Certainly NOT in the South of the Eastern Front." *The Soviets launch a major offensive in the South of the Eastern Front.* *It's always snowy in Stalingrad.*
Technically the Germans expected the Soviet winter offensive to come at Rhzev near Moscow, which it did. November 25th, operation Mars started, of equal size and scope. It failed. What surprised the Germans was that the Soviets were able to launch two such massive offensives. And that in the case of Uranus they planned it so very well. Up till then Soviet offensives had been ill prepared and poorly coordinated. Which made it all the easier to defeat them.
Additional note this week, an American Physicist tours a remote New Mexican 'site' for a top secret project named 'Project Y'. A formal approval is given, and acquisition of the site will go through next week.
They were very "front heavy", they would attack extremely hard and kick arse as nobody else in an effort to win the war in a decisive battle. Such is exhausting, and not how a modern great power war is won, so as they would try again and again, and pushing the Allies back, they would be attritted and exhausted and out of supplies (for they all sucked at that important thing), and eventually open to counterattack. They would literally attack to the last bullet. And if you could weather that storm, you would have a chance of bagging them.
It is amazing how all the crippling blows to the Axis came within a few weeks: El Alamein, Torch, Stalingrad and Guadalcanal all happened within a very short period of time (if you consider that the war lasted for 6 years, a few weeks is really not much)
The Axis overextended, without any reinforcements and their ideology rested on the "belief" that their enemies were inferior. Their mindset prohibited adjustments and adaptation. They wanted to take on the world? Well they got it! The Soviets used their fighting retreat to prevent summary encirclement, stretching the Germans' supply lines past breaking point, and chose the ground on which to fight their enemy in a way for which they weren't suited. The western allies kinda did the same thing. Fell back to a defensible position, stretching the Axis thin, then sucker punched them when the right pieces were in play.
That's usually how it goes. The tipping scale can come quite quickly. Although in this case the 2nd half of 1942 saw the Axis advances lose impetus across the board as Allied resistance kept stiffening and the Axis was reaching for its last reserves to throw into battle for that final battle that they hoped would win them the war. And then when they did finally ran out of impetus unlike the Allies they had no more reserves to regain the initiative. On the Eastern Front the USSR even in its darkest hours in 1941 it still had reserves the size of armies. The Germans quickly threw in their reserve force, 2nd Army, during Barbarossa and since then no longer had a large reserve left. Even their last attempt to regain the initiative at Kursk could only happen by shortening the frontlines to free enough troops for that battle. In contrast the USSR even had a whole reserve army group for that battle. And the Allies had the advantage that the US mobilization was delivering new ships and divisions every month.
The contrast between the great war and its child is insane, in the great war battles would take 6 months to a year only to advance yards of the front whereas in WW2 game changing battles would take mere days to cover 100s of miles
The land battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations (not China-Burma-India; CBI was a different theater) were a lot more like World War I, especially as Japanese defensive tactics improved.
@@natekaufman1982 Indeed, defending relatively small islands allowed the Japanese to construct heavy fortifications which couldn't be bypassed, but rather had to be cleared one by one. The conditions for both sides were terrible with fighting often that resembled that of the Western Front in WW1. Casualties of course were also horrific, not just for the Japanese who nearly always fought to the last man, but also for the Allied assault troops. An infantry company would go into battle and within weeks would be depleted of 60% - 80% of it's number.
@@natekaufman1982 I remember reading in the comments somewhere of one of these WWII videos is "World War II in Asia is the Asian equivalent of World War I in-terms of environment and property destruction," I believe it was actually the WAH episode about Nanking. It makes sense, considering WWI was predominantly in Europe so the Asians never directy experienced on their own land until now when the Chinese and Japanese went all out on mainland Asia.
"Ching" Lee and the Washington weren't just another admiral and another battleship. Lee was one of the most distinguished marksmen in Navy history, having cleaned house in just about every competition he ever entered. In the 1920 Olympics, he won 5 golds, a silver, and a bronze. It would take 60 years for someone to beat his total. During the Battle of Veracruz, he found himself ashore and passed the time by baiting and countersniping snipers. For him, there was no fundamental difference between shooting a rifle and a battleship's 16 inch guns. So long as you had accurate ballistic data, which he did, it was just a matter of finding the enemies. Kirishima wasn't just hit by somewhere between 9 and 20 main gun shells. She ate each and every one of them in a matter of minutes. For her, it was the worst, and last, night of her service. For Lee and the Washington, it was just another spot of target practice.
At 86, I'm going through the whole Second World War all over again. finger's crossed I last the distance and my Crystal Ball tells me that it will all be over by August 2024 with an Allied victory. Of course I could be wrong and some time traveller has tweaked the outcome so history changes. I hope not, otherwise I'll be typing these comments in German, or Japanese, depending on whether I survive. Can't wait for next weeks episode. Lindy.
@@VladVlad-ul1io There were periods of excitement, sometimes followed by boredom just carrying on with everyday life and a few moments of absolute terror, especially in the early years. Everyone has their bomb story and the occasional lucky moments. when a second either way meant the difference between life, death, or injury.
Early in 1943, with the 6th Army doomed in Stalingrad, the Turkish consul in Moscow perhaps best summed up Germany's reversal of fortune. Reporting to Ankara his opinion on the military situation in the Soviet Union, he predicted that, "This year the lands which the Germans have destined for their living space will become their dying space."
- Random Soviet soldier in Stalingrad: “sir, we can’t hold out. Please, we must retreat.” - Soviet Command: “just hold out. One more day.” - Soldier: “you’ve been saying that for months!” - Command: “one more day.” The next day. - Soldier: “the Germans... why are they not attacking?” - Command: “see. One more day! I knew I’d be right eventually!”
It's important to notice that not only the Germans had only 1 Panzer division in reserve to stop Uranus, but that that one, 22 Panzer Division, was the worst Panzer division in the entire German Army, still fielding lots of Czech Pz 38(t)
The tanks were also not well maintained and idle for long periods. Mice had gotten in and chewed up many of the electrical wiring making them even less effective.
The 22nd Panzer Division was certainly badly equipped, but it played a major role in Manstein's attack on the Kerch peninsula in spring of 1942. So I do not think that its soldiers were inexperienced.
To be fair though, even now not all soviet tanks are already T34s. There is still a good ammount of older designs left running as well. But if they do meet T34s they will ahve a problem, especially do to the steppe beeing open planes and the german tanks (unusually for WW2) in this case having a range disadvantage. If they would have run into a tank division equipped mainly with Panzer IV.`s it might have looked a lot different in taht regard. Also RIP the romanian tanks that are even worse then the czech P 38(t). Not a great day to be romanian thats for sure.
Like they had a chance. A half million men against a bunch of guys who were sitting there thinking "Christ, it's cold. What the hell are we even doing here trying to help these dickheads?"
@@yes_head actually the Romanians at the time were extremely pro-German. They held a grudge against the Soviets for being forced to give up Bessarabia and Buchovina to the USSR in the 1930s; they were by and large happy to be there, thinking they were extracting their pound of flesh for past injustices. The Germans liked them too. There were more Romanians fighting than any other European Axis army aside from Germany, to the point that many considered Romania to be higher up in the pecking order than Italy (ostensibly the other major partner). The Romanians were considered better fighters too, as the Germans gave them Pz IIIs and IVs while Italy had to fight on with their poorer M13s and M14s. It wasn't all one-sided either, as the Romanians came up with an assault gun design that the Germans liked so much they virtually copied it (the Maresal became the Hetzer).
Guadalcanal had another effect as well. As it sucked up so many of the Japanese destroyers it left her shipping very vulnerable to American submarines, which where slowing figuring out their hillarious torpedo issues. The Japanese attacked the Americans to gain access to the natural resources of Indonesia. But they still had to get those raw materials to Japan to be of any use. With their destroyers being used as supply ships that was getting more and more difficult to do.
The Special Type Destroyers were always intended for fleet actions. So for their losses off Guadalcanal so far and starting next week, off New Guinea it affected the bigger units and their ability to sortie with adequate escorts By now, the old Kamilaze, Minekazes DDs, the modern torpedo boats & ancient patrol boats were the escorts of the merchantmen. The newer kaibokans and coastal defense ships were to relieve the older ships from that roles in mid 1943. But in fact, the kaibokans augmented them due to their worsening war situation.
Honestly I think the failures of the Mark 14 are probably the best argument against "the US knew Pearl Harbor would happen" out there. If they knew enough about Japanese wartime capabilities to figure out they planned a huge coordinated invasion of the Philippines while crippling the pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor... sending the aircraft carriers for safety knowing they were the 'new wave' of combat.... they'd have also known about the Japanese reliance on their vastly superior torpedoes, and have known their torpedo bombers were dead weight as anything but a distraction. A problem that kept constantly biting the Americans in the ass. So either the US was trying to constantly lose a bunch of big ships and planes in stupid ways, or they really had no idea what Japan was capable of, and had to slowly figure out their own inadequacies.
Bizarre thing is that pre war Japan used American merchant shipping to move the majority of it’s trade and resources so attacking the USA was economic suicide.
@@Killua2001 The US had no idea what Japan was capable of. An attack on Pearl was expected, but they expected a "raid" by one or two carriers, not an attack using six. The US was utterly incapable of coordinating that many carriers at a time, note that at Midway six months later the US split their carriers into two separate task forces.
What we see today is a very rare accurance: a modern WW2-era battleship sinks another battleship/battlecruiser with gunfire alone, with the only other cases being Hood and Bismarck.
@@merdiolu Scharnhorst survived Duke of York's artillery attack, she was sunk by torpedoes. I agree with Bismarck, although she was sunk by 2 battleships, so not exactly a 1vs1. She was also already damaged before her final battle.
@@michaelkovacic2608 Scharnhorst did not "survive" Duke of York's gunfire "intact". She was reduced to a wreck by 15 inch shels from Duke. Then finished off by torpedoes of destroyers. One officer described gunnery hits on Scharnhorst by Duke of York was like (quote) "one watching kicking of a puppy to death"
@@merdiolu Duke of York carried 14inch guns, not 15inch as you claim. Scharnhorst's fighting ability was severely depleted and her machinery damaged, but the gunfire was not enough to sink her.
@@michaelkovacic2608 Sorry yes 14 inch. But after the damage she suffered from guns of Duke of York , Scharnhorst would not be able to return Germany , respaired and win the war single handedly for Germany. After her guns turrets were mostly destroyed and upper decks wrecked , on fire ,listing in Battle of North Cape , the last salvo of torpedoes from destroyers were just a "Coup de Grace"
Guadalcanal as well. It tends to get overshadowed by Midway in popular memory, but it was arguably just as important as Midway in shaping the course of the rest of the war in the Pacific. It's the Kursk to Midway's Stalingrad.
I’d replace Midway with Guadalcanal. Midway was the first win for the US, but look at all the damage the Guadalcanal is doing to Japan’s overall strategic picture.
@@lordofthemound3890 The loss of Japan's elite carrier force cannot be understated. It's likely that they would've won Gaudalcanal if they were there. The US Navy was just barely able to hold on as it is
Also this week on November 15 1942, the United States Navy’s *Naval Aircraft Factory TDN-1 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV)* will have its first flight. The TDN-1 is often given credit for being the first American drone to take off from an aircraft carrier (USS Sable (IX-81)). This early UCAV model, which was referred to at the time as an “assault drone”, had some success in flight tests, but was ultimately superseded by improved designs such as the *Interstate TDR UCAV* . These early UCAVs were designed to be capable of using either television or radar guidance for control.
От границы мы Землю вертели назад Было дело, сначала Но обратно её закрутил наш комбат Оттолкнувшись ногой от Урала Наконец-то нам дали приказ наступать Отбирать наши пяди и крохи Но мы помним, как солнце отправилось вспять И едва не зашло на Востоке
@Fred Nurke well, it’s a pretty good translation. Only one objection: it is “the sun almost set in the East”, not “went”. I hope it helped with the understanding
@Fred Nurke This is famous soviet song about war "We are rotating the Earth" of legendary soviet poet, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky. th-cam.com/video/FKxxD1od-RQ/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/857vy90Yb60/w-d-xo.html Translation (by Schnurrbrat): From our border and back we rotated the Earth: Yes, we did, rest reassured. But the Earth’s spin our captain then chose to reverse, Kicking off with his foot from the Urals.
Well, at last we've been given a task to attack, To retrieve all our cubits and pieces. Yet we keep in our mind how the sun went off track, How it almost set down moving eastward.
We don’t measure the Earth with our movements All the while stomping flowers in vain. We, instead, push the Earth with our jackboots: Off our way, off our way!
All the haystacks are bent by the wind from the east, A sheep flock seeks [the cliffs for] protection. Since today the Earth’s axis was shifted with ease When we changed the offensive direction.
Do not be so confused when the sunset’s misplaced; Judgement day is a folk tale for adults. It is simply the Earth is rotated with ease By the troops of our marching battalions.
We are crawling, we’re hugging each tussock; Grass is violently pinched, not in play; With our knees the Earth’s surface is hustled: Off our way, off our way!
Not a single man there would have raise up his hands, Not a man struck the colors. All the bodies today are of tangible help: Living souls use their fallen for cover.
Will this foolish lead put every man to his rest? At point-blank or from flanks are we threatened? Someone covered the machine-gun nest with his chest, And the Earth then froze still for a second.
Feet are useless when crawling, my fellows. For the dead I, in passing, will prey. The Earth’s globe I’m rotating with elbows: Off our way, off our way!
Someone stood up full height, with a bow of his head, Took a bullet and stiffened. But our companies crawl to the west, to the west, So the sun will rise properly eastward.
With our bellies in mud, we breathe stench of the marsh, But we’re closing our eyes to this fetor. And today the sun properly follows its arch, Because West’s the direction we’re heading.
Arms and legs, both are checked as we shuffle; Sipping dew, as if married today, We are pulling the Earth by the stubble: On our way, on our way!
@Fred Nurke And second version of the translation (by Margonica): We've been rotating the world back from the border, It was true at the beginning, But our battalion commander has turned it around, Pushing his foot against the Ural.
Finally, we've got the order to attack, To take back the bits and pieces of our land, But we do remember the sun going backwards And almost setting at the east.
We don't pace along the world, Disturbing the flowers for no reason, - We push it with our boots Away! Away! And the haystacks have bended under the eastern wind, And the flocks of sheep are clinging to the rocks. We have moved the Earth's axis without a lever, Just by changing the direction of attack.
Don't be afraid if the sunset is misplaced, The Day of Judgement is just a fairy tale for adults. It's just that our marching troops Rotate the world wherever they want.
We are crawling, embracing the hillocks, Hugging the tussocks angrily, with no love, And we push the world with our knees Away! Away!
Even if someone wanted, they wouldn't have found Anyone with their hands up. The bodies are very useful to everyone alive: We hide ourselves behind the fallen.
Will the stupid cold lead find everyone at once, Will it strike point-blank or from the rear? …Someone out there in front thrust himself on a gun slit, And the world momentarily stopped.
I have left my feet behind, And, casually mourning the fallen, I'm rotating the world with my elbows - Away! Away!
Someone stood up and, making a bow, Accepted his inspiratory bullet. But the battalion is crawling west, west, So that the sun would rise at the east!
Our bellies in mud, we inhale the stench of bogs, But we turn a blind eye to the smell. The sun is moving normally across the sky now, Because we are pushing for the west.
Whether our arms and legs are in their place or not, - Tasting the dew, as if in a wedding, We are pulling the world with our teeth, by the grass, - To us and away!
The siege of Malta (a tiny island) is over after 2 years. We have seen how both the Luftwaffe and the italian airforce have bombed the crap out of this little island that I am surprised that it can still can be found today, yet the island hold. Truly impressiv.
It would be interesting to understand how the population dealt with this siege, what the islands resources were (farming/fishing/starvation...etc.) how bad the bombing was to civilian targets, etc.
In my opinion, Malta was the turning point for the war in Europe. The Germans could never get the oil they needed to sustain their army after they gave up in the Mediterranean.
Malta was awarded the George Cross, the highest award available to civilians. For “acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.”
One thing with showing how many sailors died when their ships were sunk or damaged, is that it reminded me of a cartoon published in 1942 by the Daily Mirror in the UK - essentially it showed a sailor clinging to a piece of flotsam, in rough seas - it was titled - "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny" In memorium to the 32,000 men of the merchant marine who died in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Thank you, facts often forgotten. Let us also not forget that those Merchant Seaman were off wages when the ship sank or they were taken prisoner. There dependents received nothing.
I loved how you allow the viewer to enjoy the moments of victory for the Allies. Too many ww2 historical channels will cover things from the Allies perspective when the Germans are winning in 1940-1, and then as soon as the Germans start losing, start covering things from the German perspective, which is miserable to watch, as you are always watching someone losing. Your coverage of Operation Uranus was brilliant to watch, and the victory felt very earned for The Soviets, especially with the quote of "help you couldn't have dreamt of". Brilliant stuff, keep it up!
Anthony Beevor in his book STALINGRAD gives a chilling account of the effect on Germans during the first days of the Soviet breakthrough. The army (Germans as well as Romanians) outside the city disintegrated in panic trying to stampede into the ruined city before the Russians cut them off in the open steppes. They sensed they were dead men walking. For some, death came quickly. Most had to die slowly from hunger, stress, typhus, and gangrene during the next twelve weeks of siege and capture. By April 1943 only about 20,000 of the 240,000 or so trapped there would still be alive, and only about 5,500 survived long enough to be repatriated to German during the years after the war. On November 20th, the Germans saw the face of death marching ever closer, day by day.
Payback for the 6th Army's involvement in the Bila Tservka massacre, von Reichenau's severity order and other warcrimes and crimes against humanity. They deserved nothing less.
@@warcrimeconnoisseur5238 Total combat casualties up until Uranus from the start of the battle of Stalingrad was 85 000. From a total manpower pool of 248 000 (iirc). But most of those replacements where low ranking NCO's and grunts from other fronts. The officers, people in charge (and the majority that had been with the Army since the aforementioned warcrimes) where alive when they got encircled and got to stew on some well deserved karma, bar a few exceptions (like lieutenant col. Helmuth Groscurth, who was in the German resistance and actually wrote home to his wife that he hoped Germany loose the war, after he witnessed the atrocities of the Army he served)
@@heno02 A well-deserved payback. A Russian officer reported on how the Germans treated Soviet prisoners of war when the Soviets liberated a POW camp outside Stalingrad: “Close-by,” he went on, “we found an open air camp for Russian prisoners. Yes-open-air, with barbed-wire round it. It was dreadful. There were originally 1,400 men there, whom the Germans forced to work on fortifications. Only 102 survived. You might say the Germans had nothing to eat themselves; but the starvation of the prisoners began long before the encirclement."
@@heno02 British journalist Alexander Werth, explains in his book RUSSIA AT WAR, that the Soviets, despite the German atrocities against their men, treated their German captives as humanely as circumstances allowed. Werth interviewed two German POWs the Russians put to work clearing the rubble of Stalingrad: They [the captured Germans] were both on the skinny side, but looked reasonably fit, and said they were getting plenty of food now, and were surprised at being so well treated. The Russian sergeant who was in charge of the two Germans had been listening to our conversation with a touch of tolerant amusement. Now he called them back to get on with the job. “How are they?” [he asked] I said to him. “They’re all right, nichevo. Ludi kak ludi. (Like any other people)”.
Really appreciate your work guys, amazing as always! I thought I'd quickly share something. My great grandfather was a part of the Romanian 3rd Army during the drive to Stalingrad and Operation Uranus. When the Soviet Offensive hit, his division was almost completely destroyed and he ended up being attached to one of the 6 infantry divisions which got encircled in Stalingrad. He was captured when the remains of Paulus' forces surrendered and was sent to a gulag in the Urals before being transferred to Don-Bass in 1944 to work in the coal mines, he spent a total of almost 7 years captive in the Soviet Union before being released in late 1948/ early 1949. Another great grandfather of mine also fought at Stalingrad and managed to retreat with the remnants of the 3rd and 4th armies westwards. One of his brothers actually defected to the Soviets during the retreat and fought in the Red Army until the end of the war. My other great grandfather survived the retreat westwards and following the royal coup in August 1944, and Romania switching sides, he fought as a part of the First Romanian Army alongside the Soviets and participated in battles such as the Siege of Budapest and the Prague Offensive. Love your work guys! Keep it up! Also any chance of a special on Romania or other minor axis nations in WWII?
Admiral Lee trained his men really hard in the use of radar and fire controle. this allowed washington to have such high hit rate. In comparison to other US admirals at guadalcanal who dismised and did not trust radar signals, what allowed the Japanese to get the first shots of in many other battles.
Washington still used visual spotting when sinking Kirishima. She of course used her Mark 3 Fire control radar, but it wasn't that good of a system, so while it provided good ranging it wasn't that good for adjusting fire (also, range was kinda short). This was shown at the beginning of the battle when Washington and South Dakota fired some blind salvoes on the Japanese without much luck. Although the Mark 3 did manage to spot the shell splashes and correct fire to an extent, which is impressive for an early radar like that. Much more important was the SG radar, a centimetric search radar with a PPI screen that gave the Americans and Lee in particular a much better view of the battle, and allowed Washington to sneak up on Kirishima.
@@rare_kumiko And each turret had a target to hit and one 5" inch turret of each side was assigned to shoot flares to light the sky... That is a very good strategy
@@rare_kumiko I guess Guadalcanal could be seen as the first real use of radar in naval warfare, but the results for the USN were definitely mixed (or even woeful.) But there's no doubt much was learned and experience gained. It's perhaps not a huge surprise that the officers who least understood its benefits or knew how to employ it (I'm looking at you, Adm Callaghan) paid the highest price.
That's not quite true--there was fairly widespread use of it, but radar-assisted gunnery, at least at night, had an atrocious success rate. The technology and the needed experience wasn't quite there, and often-cramped ocean conditions frequently confused allied gunner. Records reveal that they were only hitting a tiny fraction of what they believed.
I can just imagine how a Soviet soldier fighting in Stalingrad would feel after suffering so much in the fight finally seeing the attack that they feared would take Stalingrad stop and his country's massive counterattack on the Axis they have been waiting for
those Soviet Red Army soldier in Stalingrad have won WW2(in Europe). Like no one else, they gave the very last, in a hopeless situation, to turn the tide. And they did. Heros they are.
A side note this month on November 1942 is that the *Republic P-47 Thunderbolt* fighter-bomber aircraft will enter Allied service in both the European and Pacific theatres. With a powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine along with an advanced turbo-supercharger, this would eventually allow the aircraft to dominate the air at high altitudes. The modern day Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II jet attack aircraft takes its name from the P-47.
The P 47 was mostly used in Europe, because of its limited range. The P51 was the long range plane. The P47 was technically state of the art of its time, had some advantages here and some disadvantages there. When you take a look at the list of aces en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_flying_aces 30 German pilots managed to shoot down 5 or more P47. Particular Erich Hartman was very successful in downing P47 and P51. The P47 with it 8 machine guns had a great fire power, and was useful for ground attacks. As fighter, it was less successful, maybe because of British/US designs with the crossing trajectory of the bullets. Finally, the P47 played such a role in allied air superiority, because of it big production numbers.
P-47s arrived in the UK in late 1942 but the first combat missions weren't until March of '43. P-38s were actually in theater sooner, being used in Operation Torch alongside P-40s.
@@michaelschmid9567 even in Europe it was very much a niche aircraft it excelled in some things but was near useless in others. As can be seen from pilot accounts. The Mighty 8th series of factual books has some good accounts from pilots and other aircraft crew on its advantages and flaws.
@@michaelgreen1515 well, we had twin engine air planes like the P 38 or Me110 and single engine like the Me109, Spitfire, P47, P51 and many others. In the European war fare, the single engine, short range fighter planes rule the the sky, when it was in there range. Twin engine fighter planes was used for special purpose, like long range escort or reconnaissance planes. The twin engine Me110 was used with a Radar equipted version by the Luftwaffe. On the pacific war fare, things was different. The P 38 did well on the pacific, but was useless in the European war fare as fighter. All American aces flew P 38 in the pacific, and hit there, but no P 38 could do something in Europe.
@@michaelschmid9567 Oh I love how you talk to me like I am both a youngster and also not a student of history, and completely reply irrelevantly to my question. If you would like stand for the House of Commons in the UK I will vote for you because you will fit right in with the approach of the politicians there of all parties: talk down and talk off what was actually said.
Cue dreadful (but still highly entertaining) puns... It's also worth noting that in the German invasion of France in 1940, Churchill stated that "the tortoise has protruded it's head far from the shell" in response to the advance of the Panzers from the main bulk of the German Army. Having got away with it once, the Germans were able to get away with it several more times, but now the Allies have it by the throat and may be about to inflict a fatal wound, even if the tortoise does not know it yet.
2:30 Since this series started I've been waiting for this moment, because at that airfield in Tébessa, my grandpa worked as a mechanic there when the allies arrived. Now I'll have to wait till Monte Cassino for another family member to appear.
"With his sweeping radar beams revealing no contacts, [Admiral Lee] passed near the grave site of the Hiei, over the wrecks of the Vincennes, the Quincy, and the Astoria, then reentered Savo Sound, to cruise over the seafloor where the Atlanta lay. As the task force came around to a westerly heading and steamed toward Cape Esperance, the navigators and helmsmen of the task force noticed that their magnetic compass needles were twitching and spinning. Magnetic interference was staightforward enough an explanation. Some thought the dead ships of Ironbottom Sound were reaching out with an inscrutable message" ~ James D Hornfischer, 'Neptune's Inferno'
Kokoda Track Campaign 21st of July, 1942- November 16th, 1942 Australians, Japanese, and Papuans have shown courage, bravery, and sacrifice in this brutal and horrific campaign. This Campaign was no glory, no dying in glory. It was a sad, horrible, and terrible series of battles. I will put a quote for the Kokoda Track. "Now I don't know a lot of you by name. But I know you. We met at Isurava, and we fought there together every step of the way here. Now we are relieved and we will leave the battle. And every day the enemy's supply line stretches further. He suffers now as you have suffered. The battle you have fought for the track may just have saved your nation. We have wounded him, we will stop him. The Brigadier wants you to know your gallantry, your courage, your fortitude are an inspiration. I want you to know that you are some of the finest soldiers I have ever seen. You have seen things in the place no man should witness. Some of these things you must forget. For history will remember you and in the years to come, others will wish that they had your conviction. Remember that glory is not the exaltation of war but the exaltation of man. Man's nobility became transcendent in the fiery crucible of war. Faithfulness and fortitude, gentleness, and compassion. I am honored to be your brother." -39th Battalion Colonel (Played by William Mclness) From the movie Kokoda 2006 Godspeed to the Australians, the Native Papuans, and the Japanese who perished in combat. May they Rest In Peace in the luscious jungles and the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range of Papua New Guinea. Courage Endurance Mateship Sacrifice 🇦🇺 🇯🇵 🇵🇬
The Australian commanders knew the outcome from the start. Except the Japanese would had employed a massive "logistical effort" to build a durable road from Buna to Kokoda and from there down the Track to Port Moresby. It was impossible for them to maintain anything more than a battalion is this area. Even, Horii knew the required transport capacities, without a usable motor road. Over 30 k porters, just for food alone. The operation was a bit like Hood's march against Nashville, in 1864. As soon as the Australians were well supplied, they chased the Japanese regiment back to Buna /Gona.
If I did not hate and despise McArthur before, studying the fight for The Kokoda Trail certainly made me. I did though, so it just intensified my distate.
@@PalleRasmussen It was not his incompetence. MacArthur lacked the experience as as small unit infantry commander. MacArthur was an engineer by trade till the rank of colonel.
Washington, South Dakota, and four destroyers selected solely based on having the most fuel among the available destroyers. Nine 16" hits from Washington is merely the number of hits Lee claimed. Japanese documents recorded at least twenty 16" hits, many either in close proximity or below the water line leading to the lower number of claimed hits. In addition to the Cactus Air Force attacking the beached transports, daylight also saw USS Meade come out and engage in over 40 minutes of gunnery exercises before sliding over to various oil patches to rescue several hundred survivors from Preston and Walke, sunk during the action a few hours before.
The battle of Stalingrad, or more particular the operation Uranus, got so famous in history: for the first time in WW2, an allied force was able to encircle AND destroy a German army. Not just a division or a corps, but an whole army, or the half of an army group. For the first time. And it not happened on the western front, but on the east. The Red Army showed this skill. The encirclement of a whole German army could not be done in north Africa, could not be done in Italy, could not be done in France. The western allies could not encircle a whole German army and destroy it, until the dissolution of the Wehrmacht in 1945. Only the Soviets could, and repeated it in a bigger scale in operation Bagration.
It helps when you have a seemingly limitless supply of men, not much regard for their lives, seemingly unending (if limited) supplies boosted greatly by allies, and lots of nice open steppe to encircle on. Now try doing that in the Sahara, or in the fields and hedgerows of Northern Europe.
It happened in Tunisia in May 1943 , Entire 5th Panzer Army and 1st Italian Army surrendered in May 1943 on the tip of Bon peninsula ,Tunisia where it was cornered and nowhere left to go. 130.000 Germans and 125.000 Italians were bagged as prisoners ,Stalingrad encirclement is of course first occasion ansd much larger but Allied accomplished that too from time to time.
@@tams805 For Europe, the Wehrmacht had no problem to do this in Poland, France, Yugoslavia, pretty much everywhere. So, when the Wehrmacht could encircle the enemies in France in 1940, why could not do the allies the same in, say, 1944?
@@merdiolu While both events ends with the surrender of an army, they are very different in, how this was reached. Stalingrad was an "encircle an intact enemy group, and by cutting off its supplies and escape route, force them to surrender". The DAK was cut off from supplies already by the Royal Navy since El Alamein, had the supply and escape route cut off already by the Royal Navy since then, but never got encircled by a military manoeuvre as in Operation Uranus. Encirclement battles, what the Germans showed in Poland, France, USSR, and the Soviets showed in Stalingrad, and with Operation Bagration, could not be shown by the western allies. Well, a small one: the battle of the Mons pocket, capturing 25k German soldiers.
@@michaelschmid9567 It was not just DAK , it was two intact Axis armies (5th Panzer Army , eight German divisions including four divisions of original DAK plus auxilary units) plus 1st Italian Army (nine Italian divisions and several brigade strength combar groups) that were driven out from Eastern Dorsal and Western Dorsal in Atlas Mountains in Tunisia March- May 1943 AND driven out from several reinforced defensive lines in Southern Tunisia (Mareth Line , Wadi Akarit and Enfideville Line) by Eighth Army during March-April 1943 AND corrnered in Cape Bon peninsula. Then when blockaded by sea by Royal Navy and lost all airfields and harbours (Tunis and Bizerta) to Allied 18th Army Group (so they could not be resupplied , nor reinforced and neither could be evacuated) they were cornered and forced to surrender. Kesselring's idea was to reinforce Tunisian bridgehead further with at least to 12 German divisions and counter attack to conquer Algeria. Instead he was steadily pushed back to sea by Allied armies (1st and 8th Armies) and two Axis armies (5th Panzer and 1st Italian) were forced to surrender when they had nowhere else to go but sea.
Usually I wait till Saturday to watch the episode, but I cannot wait for this one. Indy buried the lead for so long in the video, come on man. But my eye were glued to the screen, I have to be here for this historic moment. Quick quips 1) Americans working with former members of a dictatorial govt, well it wasn't new for neither 1942 nor 2021. 2) the kind of help you haven't even dreamed off, well I am sure no one in the world had dreamed of such help. Either way, its here, Operation Uranus. The magic of "crumbling" red army.
Well, you see: it's more of the "magic of Germany": every enemy it considers to be "crumbling" actually gets a 85% chance to win. We saw it with RAF, we see it with the Red Army.
As it's often the case with big scale wars, there isn't a single point that completely turns the table. Coral See showed the power of naval air forces and stopped the Japanese advance south towards Australia. Midway crippled the Kido Butai and its capability of launching offensive operations. Guadalcanal stopped the Japanese advance entierly and tied down its resources. They are all turning points in their own rights.
"Tanaka the tenacious makes it to Tassafaronga" Truly tittilating alliteration. Yet, I trust you know: repetition of sets of letters makes code cracking easier
On the 23rd, a remarkable journey begins for Poom Lim - 133 days adrifts on the sea, after a british ship was torpedeoed by a U-boat. He is the sole survivor. The longest survival at sea at the time.
"I know that there is pain, but if you can hold on for one more day, then you'll break free from the chains. Yeah I know that there is pain, but if you can hold on for one more day, then you'll break free, break from the chains!" --Yeremenko and Chuikov, probably.
Thank you World War Two team again, thank you Indy for your presentation. I come here every week and every week I am not disappointed, another week another episode just as good if not better than the last. Keep up the good work WW2 team thank you for all your hard work.
On November 19th mine clearing tanks were used for path clearing but two were out of action leading to 4 tanks of the 8th Tank Brigade blowing up from mines. This exceeded the losses from enemy fire as 3 T60s were lost in combat. Isaev p.242
Hey Indy - years ago I found The Great War here on youtube. Coming in late I was glad to find a playlist with all (and I mean absolutely ALL!) GW-videos. It was a playlist with almost 700 videos in it. So for me coming in late, that playlist was absolutely perfect. I followed that list for 6 months and by doing so I had watched everything you did - and how wonderful it was. My point is: I (maybe others with me) would love to have such a playlist here with WW2. Instead of jumping back and fourth between different playlist - it would be amazing to just follow one, the ”All WW2 videos” playlist. Love your work ❤️ TV channels should really give you millions and billions to buy the right to show your work on their channel.
It was a very short time between the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. Do not blame the Rumanians too much, they were under equipped, under supplied and given older equipment. They also counted on German help if all heck broke loose, but the Wehrmacht was siphoned off for Stalingrad. Instead of stopping the double pincer, they will be caught in it.
I mean the germans were stretched to the absolute limit as well. This channel sadly has compleatly ignored the major battle that is happening in the center of the eastern front: The Rzehv "meat grinder". Sadly the battles are ignored in most historical literature to this day do to the soviets getting literally slaughtered. It was a major front that took a way a lot of the reinforcemeants germany could send to Stalingrad to the center. And it wasnt a small engagemeant, it involved about 1 million german and 3-4 million soviet soldiers and raged from January 1942 until the german retreat in March 1943 (of course with intervals of no combat).
@@noobster4779 Glantz has a good book on it, though he underestimates the Soviet cynicism as Bevoor has shown; Rzhev was just a diversion from Uranus. A diversion that cost thousands of lives, but a diversion nonetheless. If you find the Russian Documentary series "Soviet Storm" it is actually surprisingly good and has a lot of Rzhev battle footage.
"The Soviets are in no position to launch any sort of major offensive. Certainly not in the South." STAVKA (launches Operation Uran) OKH: Surprised Pikachu face STAVKA: want to see me do it again?
My great Uncle was in the Desert Rats, he was in one of the RTR's though I don't recall which one. I have a few photos of him and his comrades. One of the photos shows them frying eggs and bacon on a spade.
My great uncle served before, during and after WW2 in the Catering Corps. He was part of the desert rats. He had much admiration for the Afrika Korps. On the way he picked up a cooking knife off a dead German soldier because they all knew Soligen steel was better. He used it throughout his career even at Suez (he joined underage). He then used the knife as a cook at a public school (the British boarding school type); after retirement it was used on Sunday roasts and carving ham. He could carve meat so it was even all the way through and when required so it was paper thin. When he died my Great aunt continued to use it on Sunday roasts, when she died it passed to my mum and it is still used on special occasions like Christmas for the Turkey and Ham. Bless him and the German cook and all those who tried to fight "well".
@@tams805 We did here bits of the respect for Monty, the odd bit of the War in Africa most telling is he almost never talked about after Africa in WW2. As a career soldier we heard far more about his "escapades" and close shaves or run ins with the MP's!!! He ended up drunk once on home leave and passed out in a graveyard which fortunately was walled, he escaped being picked up by the MP's managed to return to garrison and convinced them he was delayed. He managed to escape with light punishment.
This week is the first of only two battles where battleships engaged each other directly in the Pacific Theater. All other actions where IJN or USN BBs participated, there were no enemy BBs present or they were acting as support for CV task forces or shore bombardment.
The war is finally starting to turn in the allies favour. When I first started watching this I remember getting excited when the battle of Britain begun, now we're here!
This must be one hell of a morale boost for the troops in the city. Holding out for weeks under the most hellish conditions, promised help if they hold their positions, and when it finally happens to hear about the complete steamrolling of the German flanks would be amazing.
Getting ready for a final attack that would almost certainly have you killed or maybe captured and perhaps even hearing some enemy preparations. The still, foreboding silence of the minutes before the attack. And for it then to simply just not happen.
I greatly appreciate your work. My grandfather, as a medic of the 2nd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, was sent to Guadalcanal on 14th November in Raizo Tanaka's reinforcement convoy. But he was in one of the seven troop transports that were sunk by bombers from Henderson field. He and a company-sized group made it on a lifeboat to one of the islets of New Georgia Sound. They were stranded for two weeks surviving on coconuts and taro corms until a destroyer from Bougainville picked them up.
pretty amazed by the fact that this episode is already watched 50k times in 4-5 hours, nice! Caught up in a few weeks until now, can't wait for next week!
Absolutely, she rendered sterling service! A shame she wasn't preserved as a museum, but two of her sisters were (Massachussets at Quincy and Alabama at Mobile)
@@jamesbinns8528 Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While there on a work assignment, I made sure to stop by the park one lunch day to see the memorial and mock-up. One of the guns from the battleship is mounted about where it would have in a turret been seen from the mock-up of the bridge. The outline of the ship is there, too, with a mock-up stern to give the visitor a sense of the size of the ship, if I remember correctly. Google the images! Enjoy. -- retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer.
@@johnc2438 Thanks so much. I've been planning another jaunt West. WhenI was a youngster, I attended college in ND and did a couple forays into SD. Very cool. I'm putting the deck on my list.
By end of November 42 it difficult to see a route to victory for the axis. What I find remarkable (and sad given the massive lose of life it entailed) is that the war when on for almost another 3 years- that a long time to keep a lost cause going for.
@@michaelgreen1515 I don't really agree. Stalingrad was clearly lost by the end of Nov 42 and objectively these losses on the East were not replaceable. The early successes of the Japanese were over and it was clear that the US's full industrial might would inevitably wear them down, and the success of Torch meant that Axis position in North Africa was unsustainable and that Italy was now vulnerable. I think a impartial observer could have seen these material realities at the time and understood that only one eventual result was possible
@@MrBobsmith34 then why did the war take so much longer for the Allies to finish? Look back through the history of wars and over time not just the British in 1940, but many nations have come back from the edge. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even the allies weren't totally convinced as you can see by how carefully they planned D-day; how much went wrong for the allies in Italy including Sicily. So many things might have turned out differently, it's true that history doesn't happen in a vacuum but it is also true that history has passed and all those aspects did come together. History is predictable it is only written to look at. As we look at it is one thing but people on the ground didn't see it like that and I know this from talking to my relatives who fought in it or lived through it.
@@michaelgreen1515 But the thing is I think this idea of coming back from the edge only works if you have potentially greater economic capacity/manpower. In terms of both production and manpower the Axis were badly outmatched. So your capacity to recover from defeats is limited. When the Allies lost they could recover. Look at the resources the Soviets lost in badly planned operations but they still slowly achieved dominance, to a lesser extent the British in North Africa and in the early stages of war in East Asia/ Battle of the Atlantic wasted vast resources through blunders. The Axis capacity to recover was far more limited. Defeat for the Allies was temporary, you replaced the planes/tanks.men. For the German's defeats had a lasting effect. Yes D-Day could have when wrong but by that stage you were being slowly destroyed in the East away, so could Sicily but either had the capacity to change the final outcome
@@MrBobsmith34 Churchill didn't say it was the end of the beginning for nothing when he spoke in Parliament. November 1942 was a key turning point in the war, quite easy to see for all people in the know, especially those in leadership positions on both sides.
These videos are awesome and are part of my world war II video channel collection. For more detail on the Soviet / German war I watch TIK's battle storm Stalingrad series but since the videos on this channel have about a two-week lead over TIK's I enjoy seeing their documentation with a little less detail but a different pair of eyes.
You first mentioned Uranus a few weeks ago and it aroused my curiosity. I have been so excited to get into Uranus. To really probe the depths of Uranus and see what deep hidden secrets we might find. I was a bit disappointed by how shallow it was; I was hoping to get a lot deeper into Uranust than we did. Still, going a little bit into Uranus was better than not going into Uranus at all.
I love you TimeGhosts! It is incredible! I had this feeling with the Great War and now, I have it again. You can read as much as you want about those things. Time really puts all in perspective. Suddenly I am able to relate to the sheer scale of those events with the passage of my own life. At the invastion of Poland I was living in Europe with that girl, working at that job. Now in the midst of Stalingrad, my life has passed so much and I live in south america, with a different Woman. My life changed so much, the time between the wars and the great war seems soo far away, like another live (even with the time jump, you made). We had all this pandemic and much more unfold in the meatime. I just can start to understand how this must be for people living through this era with all the incertanity, the time passing, the suffering, the world changing (or for many collapsing) around them... History in real time is really a game changer and for me personally one of the greatest things modern technology has to offer! It never ceases to give me goose bumps and changes a lot, how I think about history in general... Thank you!
3:57 - note the countershading on the underside of the gun barrel. This is to disrupt the normally darker underside that results from light coming down from the sky, making the gun barrel harder to recognize from a distance.
2:33 With *Tebessa* taken so quickly by American troops on the ground, I'm sure they will next secure *Kasserine* which is not too far away from it, in no time. Surely there is no way of halting the rapid advance of the Anglo-American forces? 🤔
*spoilers* Winter stops them, because Tunisia is a miserable, muddy mess in December. Kasserine isn't until February next year (and isn't really an Axis victory at all given their losses and inability to secure any strategic gain).
@@CommissarWallace Well, Kasserine showed the US army, where they are. Only a British counter attack on the other side could, and did, stop the total destruction of the US troops there. And other side effects: the P38 Lightning, what was so successful in the Pacific, was not allowed to start anymore in Africa, because the losses was so high. The P38 was then only used as night fighter, because it did not stand a chance against the single engine fighters of the axis.
The very BEST telling of this story that I have ever had the pleasure to see. You are a superb historian, and I feel deeply grateful for your providing this. Thank you.
Thanks James. All our hard work is only made possible by the support of our fantastic community so consider joining the TimeGhost Army or supporting us on Patreon if you want to help us keep getting even better!
Churchill had a good quote about this point in the war, which (like many Churchill quotes) isn't literally true but summarizes other things that are true: "Before Alamein, we never had a victory; after Alamein, we never had a defeat!"
Hi Indy Exciting week.. Finally operation uranus.. Now can understand how sixth army lose in stalingrad and sufferings of soldiers.. Can't wait for upcoming week.. So finally axis losing.. Thanks for the another history content..
there is also a danish tv series about the raid on the heavy water plant, its called: kampen om det tunge vand. ( translated from danish = the battle for the heavy water ) it was a good series if i remember right, its been some time since i last saw it
Uuuh, a new episode! I wonder what will happen this week? The Germans will surely finally take Stalingrad, after all they already hold 90% of it... Hitler will surely spend the week with a feeling of joy and accomplishment. For Paulus... maybe even a promotion to Field Marshal? Anyway, I'm of to watch the episode.
Ive been to Vemork and the local town Rjukan. The valleys are so steep they have put mirrors on the mountain side to deflect sunlight into the town square. Its all in the shadow on southern Norways highest peak Gaustatoppen, which you can take a lift to the top inside the mountain like a Bond villain. It is all worth a visit
This is the episode I've been waiting for, ever since I began to wonder why I and several of my friends at school were all born in August 1943! Quite suddenly people in Britain could begin to look forward to a world in which they could bring up children in peace and safety - particularly those who might have finished up in a concentration camp if the Nazis had won.
Rommel on the Run in North Africa The Americans slowly but surely taking the upper hand on Guadalcanal And the 6th Army about to be encirceld in Stalingrad November 1942 is surely not a good month for the Axis
It would be great to do the history on some of these units: the Australian 7th Division for example that are now pushing on Gona in PNG, last year (1941) had been instrumental in taking Syria and Lebanon from the Vichy French and had elements in the siege of Tobruk. Its a bit of a switch going from desert to jungle warfare.
Romanian soldier: sir the Soviets are attacking Romanian general: the Soviets can attack??!! RS: so what do we do? RG: Idk, I didn't think that far ahead...
To be honest, it was the German's fault for placing Romanian troops at a long frontline with totally insufficient antitank capabilities. If they had been properly equipped, they would have certainly fought better. German strategy in the Stalingrad campaign was very bad and far too optimistic.
@@michaelkovacic2608Supposedly, Germans even stripped Roumanians from some of their already sparse artillery park for city fighting,so they fought with even less guns than they reached the Volga 2 months earlier.
@@michaelkovacic2608 To be honest, this is war. The Red Army preparation was done with good hiding of there troops concentration, tanks drove only in the night to be not spotted, the radio operator send fake messages, the secret service is working to stray wrong informations, and so on. The axis had to thin out there lines, because the Red Army fought everywhere so hard. The generals responsible was no amateurs, and if they had more antitank guns, and more of everything, they would have equipped the other axis forces as well. I agree, the Romanians are not to blame. It was the Red Army, what did that incredible good job, forced the enemy to concentrate its forces in the city, and attacked on the weakest flanks.
@@michaelschmid9567 I fully agree with you. It is of course beyond doubt that German generals were not new to the job. But basically ignoring the flanks and hoping that you win quickly enough before the enemy can exploit the situation is just so ... typically German, I would say. They always underestimated their opponents.
"Ching" Lee was something else, a "marksman Admiral". Drachinifel has a special on him. A very intelligent man, a good leader and the ultimate gunner Admiral. Here the video is th-cam.com/video/58lfaMFUQc0/w-d-xo.html
Operation Uranus is kicking off, the Germans are scrambling in Africa, and yet on paper it seemed that just a few weeks ago that they had conquered more territory than anyone else in Europe. Why such the sudden change? Did a turning point take place?
Well, sort of, but again only on paper. The problems the Germans are encountering right now are the result of issues which have been building up, and making themselves evident, over the course of years. The German military has logistical issues, production issues, and command issues. The Red Army, rather than being "degenerate sub humans" is infact one of the most effective fighting forces on earth.
We can only understand all of this if we look at the war holistically. That is after all why this channel is called TimeGhost (Zeitgeist). History does not happen in a vacuum, and if you don't believe us then check inside your vacuum cleaner now. So what is the big picture here for the Germans? Was Stalingrad a turning point in a decisive sense, or was it merely the point at which the Germans turned around and started going home?
PS: Thank you for noticing those few slight errors in this episode's maps. They'll soon be fixed!
Nobody wants to see the history in my vacuum cleaner, trust me.
That qoute from "Operation Hubertus" by Wolf Höpper is really great! You do an amazing job in bringing history alive.
While the timing is kind of amazing of turn arounds everywhere, I think while it wasn't obvious at the time, the Reich's deficiencies meant they couldn't regain the momentum of the offensive when they lost it - there was nothing behind the first punch at this point, or at least nothing comparable.
The Germans had the clocks, but the Soviets had the time
@@yourstruly4817 Nice said
"The Soviets are in no position to mount any sort of major offensive. Certainly NOT in the South of the Eastern Front."
*The Soviets launch a major offensive in the South of the Eastern Front.*
*It's always snowy in Stalingrad.*
Cheeki breeki intensifies
*lol*
Soviets: imma stick this gun up you uranus
every seven seconds a german soldier dies. stalingrad, mass grave.
Technically the Germans expected the Soviet winter offensive to come at Rhzev near Moscow, which it did. November 25th, operation Mars started, of equal size and scope. It failed. What surprised the Germans was that the Soviets were able to launch two such massive offensives. And that in the case of Uranus they planned it so very well. Up till then Soviet offensives had been ill prepared and poorly coordinated. Which made it all the easier to defeat them.
It's honestly really impressive how quickly the Axis has had its direction changed from attacking to defending.
The combo of the name and the number is even more
It wasn't quick for those men in Stalingrad or Henderson Field...
Getting a kick in Uranus will do that
The ol' bitten off more than they could chew
Changed in a blink of an eye
Additional note this week, an American Physicist tours a remote New Mexican 'site' for a top secret project named 'Project Y'. A formal approval is given, and acquisition of the site will go through next week.
Meh, it's probably nothing
@@AnimeOtaku2 yeah I don't think it'll matter
I bet he got a lot of bang for his bucks.
Yeah, this is for a testing ground for a Y-Shaped MG that could fire two bullets.
Is that where they invented colour television??
Amazing how quickly the Axis’ fortunes have changed.
They were very "front heavy", they would attack extremely hard and kick arse as nobody else in an effort to win the war in a decisive battle. Such is exhausting, and not how a modern great power war is won, so as they would try again and again, and pushing the Allies back, they would be attritted and exhausted and out of supplies (for they all sucked at that important thing), and eventually open to counterattack. They would literally attack to the last bullet. And if you could weather that storm, you would have a chance of bagging them.
The storm has been mounting for some time.
It is amazing how all the crippling blows to the Axis came within a few weeks: El Alamein, Torch, Stalingrad and Guadalcanal all happened within a very short period of time (if you consider that the war lasted for 6 years, a few weeks is really not much)
The Axis overextended, without any reinforcements and their ideology rested on the "belief" that their enemies were inferior. Their mindset prohibited adjustments and adaptation. They wanted to take on the world? Well they got it! The Soviets used their fighting retreat to prevent summary encirclement, stretching the Germans' supply lines past breaking point, and chose the ground on which to fight their enemy in a way for which they weren't suited. The western allies kinda did the same thing. Fell back to a defensible position, stretching the Axis thin, then sucker punched them when the right pieces were in play.
That's usually how it goes. The tipping scale can come quite quickly. Although in this case the 2nd half of 1942 saw the Axis advances lose impetus across the board as Allied resistance kept stiffening and the Axis was reaching for its last reserves to throw into battle for that final battle that they hoped would win them the war. And then when they did finally ran out of impetus unlike the Allies they had no more reserves to regain the initiative. On the Eastern Front the USSR even in its darkest hours in 1941 it still had reserves the size of armies. The Germans quickly threw in their reserve force, 2nd Army, during Barbarossa and since then no longer had a large reserve left. Even their last attempt to regain the initiative at Kursk could only happen by shortening the frontlines to free enough troops for that battle. In contrast the USSR even had a whole reserve army group for that battle. And the Allies had the advantage that the US mobilization was delivering new ships and divisions every month.
The contrast between the great war and its child is insane, in the great war battles would take 6 months to a year only to advance yards of the front whereas in WW2 game changing battles would take mere days to cover 100s of miles
Well the Eastern front was more fluid in WWI as well, but yeah. Better tanks and airplanes and doctrines are a game-changer.
The land battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations (not China-Burma-India; CBI was a different theater) were a lot more like World War I, especially as Japanese defensive tactics improved.
@@natekaufman1982 Indeed, defending relatively small islands allowed the Japanese to construct heavy fortifications which couldn't be bypassed, but rather had to be cleared one by one. The conditions for both sides were terrible with fighting often that resembled that of the Western Front in WW1.
Casualties of course were also horrific, not just for the Japanese who nearly always fought to the last man, but also for the Allied assault troops. An infantry company would go into battle and within weeks would be depleted of 60% - 80% of it's number.
Especially Verdun and the Isonzo front. My god what a meatgrinder that was.
@@natekaufman1982 I remember reading in the comments somewhere of one of these WWII videos is "World War II in Asia is the Asian equivalent of World War I in-terms of environment and property destruction," I believe it was actually the WAH episode about Nanking. It makes sense, considering WWI was predominantly in Europe so the Asians never directy experienced on their own land until now when the Chinese and Japanese went all out on mainland Asia.
"Ching" Lee and the Washington weren't just another admiral and another battleship. Lee was one of the most distinguished marksmen in Navy history, having cleaned house in just about every competition he ever entered. In the 1920 Olympics, he won 5 golds, a silver, and a bronze. It would take 60 years for someone to beat his total. During the Battle of Veracruz, he found himself ashore and passed the time by baiting and countersniping snipers.
For him, there was no fundamental difference between shooting a rifle and a battleship's 16 inch guns. So long as you had accurate ballistic data, which he did, it was just a matter of finding the enemies. Kirishima wasn't just hit by somewhere between 9 and 20 main gun shells. She ate each and every one of them in a matter of minutes. For her, it was the worst, and last, night of her service. For Lee and the Washington, it was just another spot of target practice.
+
Also , Lee was kind of geek, fascinated by new tech like radar. He made himself expert on using it in gunnery. Which paid off hugely that night...
Naval TH-camr "Drachinifel" did an excellent long-form video on Admiral Lee's distinguished career.
@@DavidKutzler Thanks. That's a good channel. I'll check it out.
@@Healermain15 :D Thanks for the laughs.
This is probably the most anticipated episode for me, bar the one where Operation Barbarossa begins. It was worth the wait.
It is, for me, the turning point.
All of Stalingrad is compelling. I'm waiting for an in-depth look at Kursk and Tarawa, those are gonna be doozys... doozies?
Yeah, it feels a little childish, but I too have been waiting for this day since three years now. It really feels good...
@@ernestolombardo5811 I think Doozy is one of those words where its plural form is the same as its singular form, like Sheep.
@@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods I feel like the turning point was the battle of moscow, when the nazis for the first major time were stopped
At 86, I'm going through the whole Second World War all over again. finger's crossed I last the distance and my Crystal Ball tells me that it will all be over by August 2024 with an Allied victory. Of course I could be wrong and some time traveller has tweaked the outcome so history changes. I hope not, otherwise I'll be typing these comments in German, or Japanese, depending on whether I survive. Can't wait for next weeks episode. Lindy.
awesome comment
Wow! 😎
How was the experience?
@@VladVlad-ul1io There were periods of excitement, sometimes followed by boredom just carrying on with everyday life and a few moments of absolute terror, especially in the early years. Everyone has their bomb story and the occasional lucky moments. when a second either way meant the difference between life, death, or injury.
@@davewilson4058 What theater(s) were you in?
Early in 1943, with the 6th Army doomed in Stalingrad, the Turkish consul in Moscow perhaps best summed up Germany's reversal of fortune. Reporting to Ankara his opinion on the military situation in the Soviet Union, he predicted that, "This year the lands which the Germans have destined for their living space will become their dying space."
Thanks for a truly value-adding factoid about the contemporaneous views of those closest to events.
- Random Soviet soldier in Stalingrad: “sir, we can’t hold out. Please, we must retreat.”
- Soviet Command: “just hold out. One more day.”
- Soldier: “you’ve been saying that for months!”
- Command: “one more day.”
The next day.
- Soldier: “the Germans... why are they not attacking?”
- Command: “see. One more day! I knew I’d be right eventually!”
Sir?Sir?!!! All “sirs” live in London and Paris, comrade!
@@ДанилаОгородов kkkkkkkkkkk
Imaginei direitinho essa cena kkkkkkkkk
They never asked for permission to retreat
The joke of the week !!!!!!!!!!
"France is falling... *shrugs shoulders* again"
That got a nice chuckle out of me
It's important to notice that not only the Germans had only 1 Panzer division in reserve to stop Uranus, but that that one, 22 Panzer Division, was the worst Panzer division in the entire German Army, still fielding lots of Czech Pz 38(t)
That really is shocking, I would not want to be the poor sap in a Pz 38t fighting a T34 or even a T60 or T26
The tanks were also not well maintained and idle for long periods. Mice had gotten in and chewed up many of the electrical wiring making them even less effective.
The 22nd Panzer Division was certainly badly equipped, but it played a major role in Manstein's attack on the Kerch peninsula in spring of 1942. So I do not think that its soldiers were inexperienced.
To be fair though, even now not all soviet tanks are already T34s. There is still a good ammount of older designs left running as well. But if they do meet T34s they will ahve a problem, especially do to the steppe beeing open planes and the german tanks (unusually for WW2) in this case having a range disadvantage.
If they would have run into a tank division equipped mainly with Panzer IV.`s it might have looked a lot different in taht regard.
Also RIP the romanian tanks that are even worse then the czech P 38(t).
Not a great day to be romanian thats for sure.
@@aidenhall8593 Or a KV1 or the KV2
The Romanian armies near Stalingrad are having a horrible week.
Don’t worry Steiner’s counter attack will throw back the Soviets
@@troskygames8798 Not unless the Lyrans bring their battlemechs as well as their panzers.
Not their week to quit drinking coffee, I guess.
Like they had a chance. A half million men against a bunch of guys who were sitting there thinking "Christ, it's cold. What the hell are we even doing here trying to help these dickheads?"
@@yes_head actually the Romanians at the time were extremely pro-German. They held a grudge against the Soviets for being forced to give up Bessarabia and Buchovina to the USSR in the 1930s; they were by and large happy to be there, thinking they were extracting their pound of flesh for past injustices.
The Germans liked them too. There were more Romanians fighting than any other European Axis army aside from Germany, to the point that many considered Romania to be higher up in the pecking order than Italy (ostensibly the other major partner). The Romanians were considered better fighters too, as the Germans gave them Pz IIIs and IVs while Italy had to fight on with their poorer M13s and M14s. It wasn't all one-sided either, as the Romanians came up with an assault gun design that the Germans liked so much they virtually copied it (the Maresal became the Hetzer).
Guadalcanal had another effect as well. As it sucked up so many of the Japanese destroyers it left her shipping very vulnerable to American submarines, which where slowing figuring out their hillarious torpedo issues.
The Japanese attacked the Americans to gain access to the natural resources of Indonesia. But they still had to get those raw materials to Japan to be of any use. With their destroyers being used as supply ships that was getting more and more difficult to do.
The Special Type Destroyers were always intended for fleet actions. So for their losses off Guadalcanal so far and starting next week, off New Guinea it affected the bigger units and their ability to sortie with adequate escorts
By now, the old Kamilaze, Minekazes DDs, the modern torpedo boats & ancient patrol boats were the escorts of the merchantmen. The newer kaibokans and coastal defense ships were to relieve the older ships from that roles in mid 1943. But in fact, the kaibokans augmented them due to their worsening war situation.
Honestly I think the failures of the Mark 14 are probably the best argument against "the US knew Pearl Harbor would happen" out there. If they knew enough about Japanese wartime capabilities to figure out they planned a huge coordinated invasion of the Philippines while crippling the pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor... sending the aircraft carriers for safety knowing they were the 'new wave' of combat.... they'd have also known about the Japanese reliance on their vastly superior torpedoes, and have known their torpedo bombers were dead weight as anything but a distraction.
A problem that kept constantly biting the Americans in the ass. So either the US was trying to constantly lose a bunch of big ships and planes in stupid ways, or they really had no idea what Japan was capable of, and had to slowly figure out their own inadequacies.
Bizarre thing is that pre war Japan used American merchant shipping to move the majority of it’s trade and resources so attacking the USA was economic suicide.
@@Killua2001 The US had no idea what Japan was capable of. An attack on Pearl was expected, but they expected a "raid" by one or two carriers, not an attack using six. The US was utterly incapable of coordinating that many carriers at a time, note that at Midway six months later the US split their carriers into two separate task forces.
What we see today is a very rare accurance: a modern WW2-era battleship sinks another battleship/battlecruiser with gunfire alone, with the only other cases being Hood and Bismarck.
Rodney , King George V vs Bismark , Duke of York vs Scharnhorst ,
@@merdiolu Scharnhorst survived Duke of York's artillery attack, she was sunk by torpedoes.
I agree with Bismarck, although she was sunk by 2 battleships, so not exactly a 1vs1. She was also already damaged before her final battle.
@@michaelkovacic2608 Scharnhorst did not "survive" Duke of York's gunfire "intact". She was reduced to a wreck by 15 inch shels from Duke. Then finished off by torpedoes of destroyers. One officer described gunnery hits on Scharnhorst by Duke of York was like (quote) "one watching kicking of a puppy to death"
@@merdiolu Duke of York carried 14inch guns, not 15inch as you claim. Scharnhorst's fighting ability was severely depleted and her machinery damaged, but the gunfire was not enough to sink her.
@@michaelkovacic2608 Sorry yes 14 inch. But after the damage she suffered from guns of Duke of York , Scharnhorst would not be able to return Germany , respaired and win the war single handedly for Germany. After her guns turrets were mostly destroyed and upper decks wrecked , on fire ,listing in Battle of North Cape , the last salvo of torpedoes from destroyers were just a "Coup de Grace"
As Churchill called it: "The Hinge of Fate"
El Alamein, Midway, Stalingrad. Suddenly the Axis is losing on multiple fronts, and losing hard.
Guadalcanal as well. It tends to get overshadowed by Midway in popular memory, but it was arguably just as important as Midway in shaping the course of the rest of the war in the Pacific. It's the Kursk to Midway's Stalingrad.
I’d replace Midway with Guadalcanal. Midway was the first win for the US, but look at all the damage the Guadalcanal is doing to Japan’s overall strategic picture.
@@lordofthemound3890 The loss of Japan's elite carrier force cannot be understated. It's likely that they would've won Gaudalcanal if they were there. The US Navy was just barely able to hold on as it is
@@Fractured_Unity True. That’s an excellent point.
@پیاده نظام خان If Moscow fell, the war wouldn't have ended. Stalin would've fought all the way to Vladivostok
Also this week on November 15 1942, the United States Navy’s *Naval Aircraft Factory TDN-1 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV)* will have its first flight. The TDN-1 is often given credit for being the first American drone to take off from an aircraft carrier (USS Sable (IX-81)). This early UCAV model, which was referred to at the time as an “assault drone”, had some success in flight tests, but was ultimately superseded by improved designs such as the *Interstate TDR UCAV* . These early UCAVs were designed to be capable of using either television or radar guidance for control.
Wow! 😃
That looks like a seriously old-school tie with a ton of character. Really digging it. 4/5
The ties from the D-Day episodes better be epic. Maybe they'll do traditional WW2 dress uniform ties.
I keep getting to these episodes late, and your comments are usually swallowed up in the sea. Glad to see you're still here, Gianni!
How can this comment be 2 days ago?
@@CrasusC Patreons get early access. ;)
Which school then?
My favorite episode so far! As a Russian, I was really waiting for this! Great job Indy and the team for painting the events!
От границы мы Землю вертели назад
Было дело, сначала
Но обратно её закрутил наш комбат
Оттолкнувшись ногой от Урала
Наконец-то нам дали приказ наступать
Отбирать наши пяди и крохи
Но мы помним, как солнце отправилось вспять
И едва не зашло на Востоке
@Fred Nurke well, it’s a pretty good translation. Only one objection: it is “the sun almost set in the East”, not “went”. I hope it helped with the understanding
@Fred Nurke This is famous soviet song about war "We are rotating the Earth" of legendary soviet poet, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky.
th-cam.com/video/FKxxD1od-RQ/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/857vy90Yb60/w-d-xo.html
Translation (by Schnurrbrat):
From our border and back we rotated the Earth:
Yes, we did, rest reassured.
But the Earth’s spin our captain then chose to reverse,
Kicking off with his foot from the Urals.
Well, at last we've been given a task to attack,
To retrieve all our cubits and pieces.
Yet we keep in our mind how the sun went off track,
How it almost set down moving eastward.
We don’t measure the Earth with our movements
All the while stomping flowers in vain.
We, instead, push the Earth with our jackboots:
Off our way, off our way!
All the haystacks are bent by the wind from the east,
A sheep flock seeks [the cliffs for] protection.
Since today the Earth’s axis was shifted with ease
When we changed the offensive direction.
Do not be so confused when the sunset’s misplaced;
Judgement day is a folk tale for adults.
It is simply the Earth is rotated with ease
By the troops of our marching battalions.
We are crawling, we’re hugging each tussock;
Grass is violently pinched, not in play;
With our knees the Earth’s surface is hustled:
Off our way, off our way!
Not a single man there would have raise up his hands,
Not a man struck the colors.
All the bodies today are of tangible help:
Living souls use their fallen for cover.
Will this foolish lead put every man to his rest?
At point-blank or from flanks are we threatened?
Someone covered the machine-gun nest with his chest,
And the Earth then froze still for a second.
Feet are useless when crawling, my fellows.
For the dead I, in passing, will prey.
The Earth’s globe I’m rotating with elbows:
Off our way, off our way!
Someone stood up full height, with a bow of his head,
Took a bullet and stiffened.
But our companies crawl to the west, to the west,
So the sun will rise properly eastward.
With our bellies in mud, we breathe stench of the marsh,
But we’re closing our eyes to this fetor.
And today the sun properly follows its arch,
Because West’s the direction we’re heading.
Arms and legs, both are checked as we shuffle;
Sipping dew, as if married today,
We are pulling the Earth by the stubble:
On our way, on our way!
@Fred Nurke And second version of the translation (by Margonica):
We've been rotating the world back from the border,
It was true at the beginning,
But our battalion commander has turned it around,
Pushing his foot against the Ural.
Finally, we've got the order to attack,
To take back the bits and pieces of our land,
But we do remember the sun going backwards
And almost setting at the east.
We don't pace along the world,
Disturbing the flowers for no reason, -
We push it with our boots
Away! Away!
And the haystacks have bended under the eastern wind,
And the flocks of sheep are clinging to the rocks.
We have moved the Earth's axis without a lever,
Just by changing the direction of attack.
Don't be afraid if the sunset is misplaced,
The Day of Judgement is just a fairy tale for adults.
It's just that our marching troops
Rotate the world wherever they want.
We are crawling, embracing the hillocks,
Hugging the tussocks angrily, with no love,
And we push the world with our knees
Away! Away!
Even if someone wanted, they wouldn't have found
Anyone with their hands up.
The bodies are very useful to everyone alive:
We hide ourselves behind the fallen.
Will the stupid cold lead find everyone at once,
Will it strike point-blank or from the rear?
…Someone out there in front thrust himself on a gun slit,
And the world momentarily stopped.
I have left my feet behind,
And, casually mourning the fallen,
I'm rotating the world with my elbows -
Away! Away!
Someone stood up and, making a bow,
Accepted his inspiratory bullet.
But the battalion is crawling west, west,
So that the sun would rise at the east!
Our bellies in mud, we inhale the stench of bogs,
But we turn a blind eye to the smell.
The sun is moving normally across the sky now,
Because we are pushing for the west.
Whether our arms and legs are in their place or not, -
Tasting the dew, as if in a wedding,
We are pulling the world with our teeth, by the grass, -
To us and away!
Thank you so much!
The siege of Malta (a tiny island) is over after 2 years. We have seen how both the Luftwaffe and the italian airforce have bombed the crap out of this little island that I am surprised that it can still can be found today, yet the island hold. Truly impressiv.
It has been debated if strategic bombing does any good whatsoever. It rarely defeats people morally.
@@ScooterWeibels Yep, thats true. As we have seen with the bombings of Britain and Germany. War is horrible for all people.
It would be interesting to understand how the population dealt with this siege, what the islands resources were (farming/fishing/starvation...etc.) how bad the bombing was to civilian targets, etc.
In my opinion, Malta was the turning point for the war in Europe. The Germans could never get the oil they needed to sustain their army after they gave up in the Mediterranean.
Malta was awarded the George Cross, the highest award available to civilians. For “acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.”
One thing with showing how many sailors died when their ships were sunk or damaged, is that it reminded me of a cartoon published in 1942 by the Daily Mirror in the UK - essentially it showed a sailor clinging to a piece of flotsam, in rough seas - it was titled - "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny"
In memorium to the 32,000 men of the merchant marine who died in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Thank you, facts often forgotten. Let us also not forget that those Merchant Seaman were off wages when the ship sank or they were taken prisoner. There dependents received nothing.
-Yeremenko on the 17th: Just hold on, you're gonna receive the kind of help you have never dreamed of
-Gorokhov on the 19th: oh so that wasn't a lie?
I loved how you allow the viewer to enjoy the moments of victory for the Allies. Too many ww2 historical channels will cover things from the Allies perspective when the Germans are winning in 1940-1, and then as soon as the Germans start losing, start covering things from the German perspective, which is miserable to watch, as you are always watching someone losing. Your coverage of Operation Uranus was brilliant to watch, and the victory felt very earned for The Soviets, especially with the quote of "help you couldn't have dreamt of". Brilliant stuff, keep it up!
@Fabian Kirchgessner What’s bullshit about the comment?
What did He say
Anthony Beevor in his book STALINGRAD gives a chilling account of the effect on Germans during the first days of the Soviet breakthrough. The army (Germans as well as Romanians) outside the city disintegrated in panic trying to stampede into the ruined city before the Russians cut them off in the open steppes. They sensed they were dead men walking. For some, death came quickly. Most had to die slowly from hunger, stress, typhus, and gangrene during the next twelve weeks of siege and capture. By April 1943 only about 20,000 of the 240,000 or so trapped there would still be alive, and only about 5,500 survived long enough to be repatriated to German during the years after the war. On November 20th, the Germans saw the face of death marching ever closer, day by day.
Payback for the 6th Army's involvement in the Bila Tservka massacre, von Reichenau's severity order and other warcrimes and crimes against humanity. They deserved nothing less.
@@heno02 Werent most soldiers of the 6th army already replaced at this time?
@@warcrimeconnoisseur5238 Total combat casualties up until Uranus from the start of the battle of Stalingrad was 85 000. From a total manpower pool of 248 000 (iirc). But most of those replacements where low ranking NCO's and grunts from other fronts. The officers, people in charge (and the majority that had been with the Army since the aforementioned warcrimes) where alive when they got encircled and got to stew on some well deserved karma, bar a few exceptions (like lieutenant col. Helmuth Groscurth, who was in the German resistance and actually wrote home to his wife that he hoped Germany loose the war, after he witnessed the atrocities of the Army he served)
@@heno02 A well-deserved payback. A Russian officer reported on how the Germans treated Soviet prisoners of war when the Soviets liberated a POW camp outside Stalingrad: “Close-by,” he went on, “we found an open air camp for Russian prisoners. Yes-open-air, with barbed-wire round it. It was dreadful. There were originally 1,400 men there, whom the Germans forced to work on fortifications. Only 102 survived. You might say the Germans had nothing to eat themselves; but the starvation of the prisoners began long before the encirclement."
@@heno02 British journalist Alexander Werth, explains in his book RUSSIA AT WAR, that the Soviets, despite the German atrocities against their men, treated their German captives as humanely as circumstances allowed. Werth interviewed two German POWs the Russians put to work clearing the rubble of Stalingrad: They [the captured Germans] were both on the skinny side, but looked reasonably fit, and said they were getting plenty of food now, and were surprised at being so well treated. The Russian sergeant who was in charge of the two Germans had been listening to our conversation with a touch of tolerant amusement. Now he called them back to get on with the job. “How are they?” [he asked] I said to him. “They’re all right, nichevo. Ludi kak ludi. (Like any other people)”.
Really appreciate your work guys, amazing as always!
I thought I'd quickly share something. My great grandfather was a part of the Romanian 3rd Army during the drive to Stalingrad and Operation Uranus. When the Soviet Offensive hit, his division was almost completely destroyed and he ended up being attached to one of the 6 infantry divisions which got encircled in Stalingrad. He was captured when the remains of Paulus' forces surrendered and was sent to a gulag in the Urals before being transferred to Don-Bass in 1944 to work in the coal mines, he spent a total of almost 7 years captive in the Soviet Union before being released in late 1948/ early 1949. Another great grandfather of mine also fought at Stalingrad and managed to retreat with the remnants of the 3rd and 4th armies westwards. One of his brothers actually defected to the Soviets during the retreat and fought in the Red Army until the end of the war. My other great grandfather survived the retreat westwards and following the royal coup in August 1944, and Romania switching sides, he fought as a part of the First Romanian Army alongside the Soviets and participated in battles such as the Siege of Budapest and the Prague Offensive.
Love your work guys! Keep it up! Also any chance of a special on Romania or other minor axis nations in WWII?
Thank you for sharing. Such amazing history in your family. Blessings from Australia.
Thank you for your kind words! Also, interesting story!
Admiral Lee trained his men really hard in the use of radar and fire controle. this allowed washington to have such high hit rate. In comparison to other US admirals at guadalcanal who dismised and did not trust radar signals, what allowed the Japanese to get the first shots of in many other battles.
Washington still used visual spotting when sinking Kirishima. She of course used her Mark 3 Fire control radar, but it wasn't that good of a system, so while it provided good ranging it wasn't that good for adjusting fire (also, range was kinda short). This was shown at the beginning of the battle when Washington and South Dakota fired some blind salvoes on the Japanese without much luck. Although the Mark 3 did manage to spot the shell splashes and correct fire to an extent, which is impressive for an early radar like that.
Much more important was the SG radar, a centimetric search radar with a PPI screen that gave the Americans and Lee in particular a much better view of the battle, and allowed Washington to sneak up on Kirishima.
@@rare_kumiko And each turret had a target to hit and one 5" inch turret of each side was assigned to shoot flares to light the sky... That is a very good strategy
@@rare_kumiko I guess Guadalcanal could be seen as the first real use of radar in naval warfare, but the results for the USN were definitely mixed (or even woeful.) But there's no doubt much was learned and experience gained. It's perhaps not a huge surprise that the officers who least understood its benefits or knew how to employ it (I'm looking at you, Adm Callaghan) paid the highest price.
@@rare_kumiko most often so far in this war it has been the Japanese Navy who have had the advantage in fighting nightime engagements.
That's not quite true--there was fairly widespread use of it, but radar-assisted gunnery, at least at night, had an atrocious success rate. The technology and the needed experience wasn't quite there, and often-cramped ocean conditions frequently confused allied gunner. Records reveal that they were only hitting a tiny fraction of what they believed.
I can just imagine how a Soviet soldier fighting in Stalingrad would feel after suffering so much in the fight finally seeing the attack that they feared would take Stalingrad stop and his country's massive counterattack on the Axis they have been waiting for
those Soviet Red Army soldier in Stalingrad have won WW2(in Europe). Like no one else, they gave the very last, in a hopeless situation, to turn the tide. And they did. Heros they are.
They probably experienced the realistic version of the portal army scene from Endgame
Operation Uranus kicking ass is kind of a funny word play, lol
Episode 169 too
@@warbrain1053 Nice.
19 November artillery strike was so powerful, that 19th of November is celebrated as a day of Soviet artillery and rocket troops
A side note this month on November 1942 is that the *Republic P-47 Thunderbolt* fighter-bomber aircraft will enter Allied service in both the European and Pacific theatres. With a powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine along with an advanced turbo-supercharger, this would eventually allow the aircraft to dominate the air at high altitudes. The modern day Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II jet attack aircraft takes its name from the P-47.
The P 47 was mostly used in Europe, because of its limited range. The P51 was the long range plane. The P47 was technically state of the art of its time, had some advantages here and some disadvantages there. When you take a look at the list of aces en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_flying_aces
30 German pilots managed to shoot down 5 or more P47. Particular Erich Hartman was very successful in downing P47 and P51.
The P47 with it 8 machine guns had a great fire power, and was useful for ground attacks. As fighter, it was less successful, maybe because of British/US designs with the crossing trajectory of the bullets.
Finally, the P47 played such a role in allied air superiority, because of it big production numbers.
P-47s arrived in the UK in late 1942 but the first combat missions weren't until March of '43. P-38s were actually in theater sooner, being used in Operation Torch alongside P-40s.
@@michaelschmid9567 even in Europe it was very much a niche aircraft it excelled in some things but was near useless in others. As can be seen from pilot accounts. The Mighty 8th series of factual books has some good accounts from pilots and other aircraft crew on its advantages and flaws.
@@michaelgreen1515 well, we had twin engine air planes like the P 38 or Me110 and single engine like the Me109, Spitfire, P47, P51 and many others. In the European war fare, the single engine, short range fighter planes rule the the sky, when it was in there range. Twin engine fighter planes was used for special purpose, like long range escort or reconnaissance planes. The twin engine Me110 was used with a Radar equipted version by the Luftwaffe.
On the pacific war fare, things was different. The P 38 did well on the pacific, but was useless in the European war fare as fighter.
All American aces flew P 38 in the pacific, and hit there, but no P 38 could do something in Europe.
@@michaelschmid9567 Oh I love how you talk to me like I am both a youngster and also not a student of history, and completely reply irrelevantly to my question. If you would like stand for the House of Commons in the UK I will vote for you because you will fit right in with the approach of the politicians there of all parties: talk down and talk off what was actually said.
"France is falling ... again." - Indy-
Cometic gold right there!
Cue dreadful (but still highly entertaining) puns...
It's also worth noting that in the German invasion of France in 1940, Churchill stated that "the tortoise has protruded it's head far from the shell" in response to the advance of the Panzers from the main bulk of the German Army. Having got away with it once, the Germans were able to get away with it several more times, but now the Allies have it by the throat and may be about to inflict a fatal wound, even if the tortoise does not know it yet.
2:30 Since this series started I've been waiting for this moment, because at that airfield in Tébessa, my grandpa worked as a mechanic there when the allies arrived.
Now I'll have to wait till Monte Cassino for another family member to appear.
Which nationalities?
"With his sweeping radar beams revealing no contacts, [Admiral Lee] passed near the grave site of the Hiei, over the wrecks of the Vincennes, the Quincy, and the Astoria, then reentered Savo Sound, to cruise over the seafloor where the Atlanta lay. As the task force came around to a westerly heading and steamed toward Cape Esperance, the navigators and helmsmen of the task force noticed that their magnetic compass needles were twitching and spinning. Magnetic interference was staightforward enough an explanation. Some thought the dead ships of Ironbottom Sound were reaching out with an inscrutable message" ~ James D Hornfischer, 'Neptune's Inferno'
Kokoda Track Campaign
21st of July, 1942- November 16th, 1942
Australians, Japanese, and Papuans have shown courage, bravery, and sacrifice in this brutal and horrific campaign. This Campaign was no glory, no dying in glory. It was a sad, horrible, and terrible series of battles. I will put a quote for the Kokoda Track.
"Now I don't know a lot of you by name. But I know you. We met at Isurava, and we fought there together every step of the way here. Now we are relieved and we will leave the battle. And every day the enemy's supply line stretches further. He suffers now as you have suffered. The battle you have fought for the track may just have saved your nation. We have wounded him, we will stop him. The Brigadier wants you to know your gallantry, your courage, your fortitude are an inspiration. I want you to know that you are some of the finest soldiers I have ever seen. You have seen things in the place no man should witness. Some of these things you must forget. For history will remember you and in the years to come, others will wish that they had your conviction. Remember that glory is not the exaltation of war but the exaltation of man. Man's nobility became transcendent in the fiery crucible of war. Faithfulness and fortitude, gentleness, and compassion. I am honored to be your brother." -39th Battalion Colonel (Played by William Mclness) From the movie Kokoda 2006
Godspeed to the Australians, the Native Papuans, and the Japanese who perished in combat. May they Rest In Peace in the luscious jungles and the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range of Papua New Guinea.
Courage Endurance Mateship Sacrifice
🇦🇺 🇯🇵 🇵🇬
The Australian commanders knew the outcome from the start. Except the Japanese would had employed a massive "logistical effort" to build a durable road from Buna to Kokoda and from there down the Track to Port Moresby. It was impossible for them to maintain anything more than a battalion is this area.
Even, Horii knew the required transport capacities, without a usable motor road. Over 30 k porters, just for food alone.
The operation was a bit like Hood's march against Nashville, in 1864.
As soon as the Australians were well supplied, they chased the Japanese regiment back to Buna /Gona.
I salute all the fallen Australian, Japanese and Papua New Guineas my you all rest in peace and thanks for your service 🇦🇺🇯🇵🇵🇬
If I did not hate and despise McArthur before, studying the fight for The Kokoda Trail certainly made me.
I did though, so it just intensified my distate.
@@PalleRasmussen
It was not his incompetence.
MacArthur lacked the experience as as small unit infantry commander.
MacArthur was an engineer by trade till the rank of colonel.
@@EK-gr9gd yes, incompetent battle commander. If arrogant.
Washington, South Dakota, and four destroyers selected solely based on having the most fuel among the available destroyers. Nine 16" hits from Washington is merely the number of hits Lee claimed. Japanese documents recorded at least twenty 16" hits, many either in close proximity or below the water line leading to the lower number of claimed hits.
In addition to the Cactus Air Force attacking the beached transports, daylight also saw USS Meade come out and engage in over 40 minutes of gunnery exercises before sliding over to various oil patches to rescue several hundred survivors from Preston and Walke, sunk during the action a few hours before.
The battle of Stalingrad, or more particular the operation Uranus, got so famous in history: for the first time in WW2, an allied force was able to encircle AND destroy a German army. Not just a division or a corps, but an whole army, or the half of an army group. For the first time. And it not happened on the western front, but on the east. The Red Army showed this skill.
The encirclement of a whole German army could not be done in north Africa, could not be done in Italy, could not be done in France. The western allies could not encircle a whole German army and destroy it, until the dissolution of the Wehrmacht in 1945. Only the Soviets could, and repeated it in a bigger scale in operation Bagration.
It helps when you have a seemingly limitless supply of men, not much regard for their lives, seemingly unending (if limited) supplies boosted greatly by allies, and lots of nice open steppe to encircle on.
Now try doing that in the Sahara, or in the fields and hedgerows of Northern Europe.
It happened in Tunisia in May 1943 , Entire 5th Panzer Army and 1st Italian Army surrendered in May 1943 on the tip of Bon peninsula ,Tunisia where it was cornered and nowhere left to go. 130.000 Germans and 125.000 Italians were bagged as prisoners ,Stalingrad encirclement is of course first occasion ansd much larger but Allied accomplished that too from time to time.
@@tams805 For Europe, the Wehrmacht had no problem to do this in Poland, France, Yugoslavia, pretty much everywhere.
So, when the Wehrmacht could encircle the enemies in France in 1940, why could not do the allies the same in, say, 1944?
@@merdiolu While both events ends with the surrender of an army, they are very different in, how this was reached.
Stalingrad was an "encircle an intact enemy group, and by cutting off its supplies and escape route, force them to surrender".
The DAK was cut off from supplies already by the Royal Navy since El Alamein, had the supply and escape route cut off already by the Royal Navy since then, but never got encircled by a military manoeuvre as in Operation Uranus.
Encirclement battles, what the Germans showed in Poland, France, USSR, and the Soviets showed in Stalingrad, and with Operation Bagration, could not be shown by the western allies. Well, a small one: the battle of the Mons pocket, capturing 25k German soldiers.
@@michaelschmid9567 It was not just DAK , it was two intact Axis armies (5th Panzer Army , eight German divisions including four divisions of original DAK plus auxilary units) plus 1st Italian Army (nine Italian divisions and several brigade strength combar groups) that were driven out from Eastern Dorsal and Western Dorsal in Atlas Mountains in Tunisia March- May 1943 AND driven out from several reinforced defensive lines in Southern Tunisia (Mareth Line , Wadi Akarit and Enfideville Line) by Eighth Army during March-April 1943 AND corrnered in Cape Bon peninsula. Then when blockaded by sea by Royal Navy and lost all airfields and harbours (Tunis and Bizerta) to Allied 18th Army Group (so they could not be resupplied , nor reinforced and neither could be evacuated) they were cornered and forced to surrender. Kesselring's idea was to reinforce Tunisian bridgehead further with at least to 12 German divisions and counter attack to conquer Algeria. Instead he was steadily pushed back to sea by Allied armies (1st and 8th Armies) and two Axis armies (5th Panzer and 1st Italian) were forced to surrender when they had nowhere else to go but sea.
Usually I wait till Saturday to watch the episode, but I cannot wait for this one. Indy buried the lead for so long in the video, come on man. But my eye were glued to the screen, I have to be here for this historic moment.
Quick quips
1) Americans working with former members of a dictatorial govt, well it wasn't new for neither 1942 nor 2021.
2) the kind of help you haven't even dreamed off, well I am sure no one in the world had dreamed of such help.
Either way, its here, Operation Uranus. The magic of "crumbling" red army.
Well, you see: it's more of the "magic of Germany": every enemy it considers to be "crumbling" actually gets a 85% chance to win.
We saw it with RAF, we see it with the Red Army.
Interesting to see the how many Vichy personnel were used following the fall of Syria and the negative effects it had in that region.
I always thought of Midway as the turning point in the war in the Pacific. This series has changed my mind. Instead, it is definitely Guadalcanal.
They were both were turning points in their own way. There would not have been a Guadalcanal campaign without the naval victory at Midway.
@@yes_head True. Excellent point.
As it's often the case with big scale wars, there isn't a single point that completely turns the table. Coral See showed the power of naval air forces and stopped the Japanese advance south towards Australia. Midway crippled the Kido Butai and its capability of launching offensive operations. Guadalcanal stopped the Japanese advance entierly and tied down its resources. They are all turning points in their own rights.
"Tanaka the tenacious makes it to Tassafaronga"
Truly tittilating alliteration. Yet, I trust you know: repetition of sets of letters
makes code cracking easier
Haha. Point taken.
On the 23rd, a remarkable journey begins for Poom Lim - 133 days adrifts on the sea, after a british ship was torpedeoed by a U-boat. He is the sole survivor. The longest survival at sea at the time.
Did he get a reward?
@@michaelgreen1515 Well he lived to tell the epic tale! Isn't that enough of a reward?
@@logiconabstractions6596 I think the correct answer is: YES, and no.
"I know that there is pain, but if you can hold on for one more day, then you'll break free from the chains. Yeah I know that there is pain, but if you can hold on for one more day, then you'll break free, break from the chains!"
--Yeremenko and Chuikov, probably.
Thank you World War Two team again, thank you Indy for your presentation. I come here every week and every week I am not disappointed, another week another episode just as good if not better than the last. Keep up the good work WW2 team thank you for all your hard work.
On November 19th mine clearing tanks were used for path clearing but two were out of action leading to 4 tanks of the 8th Tank Brigade blowing up from mines. This exceeded the losses from enemy fire as 3 T60s were lost in combat. Isaev p.242
Hey Indy - years ago I found The Great War here on youtube. Coming in late I was glad to find a playlist with all (and I mean absolutely ALL!) GW-videos. It was a playlist with almost 700 videos in it. So for me coming in late, that playlist was absolutely perfect. I followed that list for 6 months and by doing so I had watched everything you did - and how wonderful it was.
My point is: I (maybe others with me) would love to have such a playlist here with WW2. Instead of jumping back and fourth between different playlist - it would be amazing to just follow one, the ”All WW2 videos” playlist.
Love your work ❤️
TV channels should really give you millions and billions to buy the right to show your work on their channel.
Personally I found having years useful.
It was a very short time between the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. Do not blame the Rumanians too much, they were under equipped, under supplied and given older equipment. They also counted on German help if all heck broke loose, but the Wehrmacht was siphoned off for Stalingrad. Instead of stopping the double pincer, they will be caught in it.
It didn't help that they were spread too thin to stop a major offensive, either.
I mean the germans were stretched to the absolute limit as well.
This channel sadly has compleatly ignored the major battle that is happening in the center of the eastern front: The Rzehv "meat grinder".
Sadly the battles are ignored in most historical literature to this day do to the soviets getting literally slaughtered. It was a major front that took a way a lot of the reinforcemeants germany could send to Stalingrad to the center.
And it wasnt a small engagemeant, it involved about 1 million german and 3-4 million soviet soldiers and raged from January 1942 until the german retreat in March 1943 (of course with intervals of no combat).
@@noobster4779 it is really sad the Rzehev has been ignored. Without it you loose an important piece if context for the eastern front
@@noobster4779 Glantz has a good book on it, though he underestimates the Soviet cynicism as Bevoor has shown; Rzhev was just a diversion from Uranus. A diversion that cost thousands of lives, but a diversion nonetheless.
If you find the Russian Documentary series "Soviet Storm" it is actually surprisingly good and has a lot of Rzhev battle footage.
@@noobster4779 Actually,Soviet operation Mars was scheduled for 25th of November,so next Saturday we will see some Rzhev fighting.
"The Soviets are in no position to launch any sort of major offensive. Certainly not in the South."
STAVKA (launches Operation Uran)
OKH: Surprised Pikachu face
STAVKA: want to see me do it again?
Wanna me see kick URANUS off again?
STAVKA: I’ll fucking do it again
He wasn't even trying to pretend he isn't saying YourAnus... my boy :D
You have upped your production game, good job. Love your series, guys!
My great Uncle was in the Desert Rats, he was in one of the RTR's though I don't recall which one. I have a few photos of him and his comrades. One of the photos shows them frying eggs and bacon on a spade.
Do you mean frying eggs in a spade without a fire?
@@jamesbinns8528 yes James, must have been damned hot. I hope they didn't use the shovel for shovel patrol, but he did survive the war 😁
My great uncle served before, during and after WW2 in the Catering Corps. He was part of the desert rats. He had much admiration for the Afrika Korps. On the way he picked up a cooking knife off a dead German soldier because they all knew Soligen steel was better. He used it throughout his career even at Suez (he joined underage). He then used the knife as a cook at a public school (the British boarding school type); after retirement it was used on Sunday roasts and carving ham. He could carve meat so it was even all the way through and when required so it was paper thin. When he died my Great aunt continued to use it on Sunday roasts, when she died it passed to my mum and it is still used on special occasions like Christmas for the Turkey and Ham. Bless him and the German cook and all those who tried to fight "well".
My grandfather was in the Royal Signals in North Africa.
He never spoke of it though.
@@tams805 We did here bits of the respect for Monty, the odd bit of the War in Africa most telling is he almost never talked about after Africa in WW2. As a career soldier we heard far more about his "escapades" and close shaves or run ins with the MP's!!! He ended up drunk once on home leave and passed out in a graveyard which fortunately was walled, he escaped being picked up by the MP's managed to return to garrison and convinced them he was delayed. He managed to escape with light punishment.
I'm noticing a common theme of Henderson Field being an absolute thorn in the side of the IJN.
Guadalcanal was going to be an unsinkable carrier for whoever could hold the airstrip.
@@lycaonpictus9662 yep
Now Honiara International Airport
Interestingly Henderson Field is now the Solomon Islands' main international airport.
16:44 - MAP.. what a hidden message, what well spent time decrypting it.
This week is the first of only two battles where battleships engaged each other directly in the Pacific Theater. All other actions where IJN or USN BBs participated, there were no enemy BBs present or they were acting as support for CV task forces or shore bombardment.
The war is finally starting to turn in the allies favour. When I first started watching this I remember getting excited when the battle of Britain begun, now we're here!
This must be one hell of a morale boost for the troops in the city. Holding out for weeks under the most hellish conditions, promised help if they hold their positions, and when it finally happens to hear about the complete steamrolling of the German flanks would be amazing.
Getting ready for a final attack that would almost certainly have you killed or maybe captured and perhaps even hearing some enemy preparations. The still, foreboding silence of the minutes before the attack. And for it then to simply just not happen.
I greatly appreciate your work.
My grandfather, as a medic of the 2nd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, was sent to Guadalcanal on 14th November in Raizo Tanaka's reinforcement convoy. But he was in one of the seven troop transports that were sunk by bombers from Henderson field. He and a company-sized group made it on a lifeboat to one of the islets of New Georgia Sound. They were stranded for two weeks surviving on coconuts and taro corms until a destroyer from Bougainville picked them up.
so the Russians kick ass in Operation urAnus?
well played Indy, well played.
Damn. I'm embarrassed that I didn't catch that!
@@ivanmascot you do realise, that i was just making a joke right?
By the way i am not even a native english speaker.
pretty amazed by the fact that this episode is already watched 50k times in 4-5 hours, nice! Caught up in a few weeks until now, can't wait for next week!
I'm from South Dakota. In my hometown we have a scale mock-up memorial of USS South Dakota's main deck. I never knew she saw so much combat!
Absolutely, she rendered sterling service! A shame she wasn't preserved as a museum, but two of her sisters were (Massachussets at Quincy and Alabama at Mobile)
Where is this deck? Which city?
@@jamesbinns8528 Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While there on a work assignment, I made sure to stop by the park one lunch day to see the memorial and mock-up. One of the guns from the battleship is mounted about where it would have in a turret been seen from the mock-up of the bridge. The outline of the ship is there, too, with a mock-up stern to give the visitor a sense of the size of the ship, if I remember correctly. Google the images! Enjoy. -- retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer.
@@johnc2438 Thanks so much. I've been planning another jaunt West. WhenI was a youngster, I attended college in ND and did a couple forays into SD.
Very cool. I'm putting the deck on my list.
Got goosebumps listening to the beginning phases of Uranus. Such a pivotal moment in the war
By end of November 42 it difficult to see a route to victory for the axis. What I find remarkable (and sad given the massive lose of life it entailed) is that the war when on for almost another 3 years- that a long time to keep a lost cause going for.
Consider that statement?
It went on for another 3 years, it only looks that lost with hindsight.
@@michaelgreen1515 I don't really agree. Stalingrad was clearly lost by the end of Nov 42 and objectively these losses on the East were not replaceable. The early successes of the Japanese were over and it was clear that the US's full industrial might would inevitably wear them down, and the success of Torch meant that Axis position in North Africa was unsustainable and that Italy was now vulnerable. I think a impartial observer could have seen these material realities at the time and understood that only one eventual result was possible
@@MrBobsmith34 then why did the war take so much longer for the Allies to finish?
Look back through the history of wars and over time not just the British in 1940, but many nations have come back from the edge. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even the allies weren't totally convinced as you can see by how carefully they planned D-day; how much went wrong for the allies in Italy including Sicily. So many things might have turned out differently, it's true that history doesn't happen in a vacuum but it is also true that history has passed and all those aspects did come together. History is predictable it is only written to look at. As we look at it is one thing but people on the ground didn't see it like that and I know this from talking to my relatives who fought in it or lived through it.
@@michaelgreen1515 But the thing is I think this idea of coming back from the edge only works if you have potentially greater economic capacity/manpower. In terms of both production and manpower the Axis were badly outmatched. So your capacity to recover from defeats is limited. When the Allies lost they could recover. Look at the resources the Soviets lost in badly planned operations but they still slowly achieved dominance, to a lesser extent the British in North Africa and in the early stages of war in East Asia/ Battle of the Atlantic wasted vast resources through blunders. The Axis capacity to recover was far more limited. Defeat for the Allies was temporary, you replaced the planes/tanks.men. For the German's defeats had a lasting effect. Yes D-Day could have when wrong but by that stage you were being slowly destroyed in the East away, so could Sicily but either had the capacity to change the final outcome
@@MrBobsmith34 Churchill didn't say it was the end of the beginning for nothing when he spoke in Parliament. November 1942 was a key turning point in the war, quite easy to see for all people in the know, especially those in leadership positions on both sides.
These videos are awesome and are part of my world war II video channel collection. For more detail on the Soviet / German war I watch TIK's battle storm Stalingrad series but since the videos on this channel have about a two-week lead over TIK's I enjoy seeing their documentation with a little less detail but a different pair of eyes.
Hitler to Paulus: “You must take Stalingrad!”
Stalin to Paulus: “In Soviet Russia, Stalingrad takes you.”
You first mentioned Uranus a few weeks ago and it aroused my curiosity. I have been so excited to get into Uranus. To really probe the depths of Uranus and see what deep hidden secrets we might find. I was a bit disappointed by how shallow it was; I was hoping to get a lot deeper into Uranust than we did. Still, going a little bit into Uranus was better than not going into Uranus at all.
I love how he said "France is falling. . . *again.* " like that. XD
I love you TimeGhosts!
It is incredible! I had this feeling with the Great War and now, I have it again.
You can read as much as you want about those things. Time really puts all in perspective. Suddenly I am able to relate to the sheer scale of those events with the passage of my own life.
At the invastion of Poland I was living in Europe with that girl, working at that job. Now in the midst of Stalingrad, my life has passed so much and I live in south america, with a different Woman. My life changed so much, the time between the wars and the great war seems soo far away, like another live (even with the time jump, you made).
We had all this pandemic and much more unfold in the meatime.
I just can start to understand how this must be for people living through this era with all the incertanity, the time passing, the suffering, the world changing (or for many collapsing) around them...
History in real time is really a game changer and for me personally one of the greatest things modern technology has to offer!
It never ceases to give me goose bumps and changes a lot, how I think about history in general...
Thank you!
Can only imagine the enthusiasm when it comes to titling the videos of this period.
Outstanding work as always TG; thank you!
Thank you! We're glad to hear you enjoy our content.
3:57 - note the countershading on the underside of the gun barrel. This is to disrupt the normally darker underside that results from light coming down from the sky, making the gun barrel harder to recognize from a distance.
TH-cam: "Don't swear in your videos and especially in your titles or we'll demonetize them."
WW2: "You can't demonetize us twice!"
“The attack never came.”
Legit got chills when Indy read that. World history turned this day.
This is the most important month of the war
Loving the in picture portraits when showing the army group maps! Great job 🙌🏻
2:33 With *Tebessa* taken so quickly by American troops on the ground, I'm sure they will next secure *Kasserine* which is not too far away from it, in no time. Surely there is no way of halting the rapid advance of the Anglo-American forces? 🤔
Agreed, nothing can stop the American troops taking Kasserine easily!
The New York Times will write about this battle in the Kasserine battle. Will be interesting to read.
*spoilers* Winter stops them, because Tunisia is a miserable, muddy mess in December.
Kasserine isn't until February next year (and isn't really an Axis victory at all given their losses and inability to secure any strategic gain).
@@CommissarWallace Well, Kasserine showed the US army, where they are.
Only a British counter attack on the other side could, and did, stop the total destruction of the US troops there.
And other side effects: the P38 Lightning, what was so successful in the Pacific, was not allowed to start anymore in Africa, because the losses was so high. The P38 was then only used as night fighter, because it did not stand a chance against the single engine fighters of the axis.
@@michaelschmid9567 You're more than welcome to read my doctoral thesis on Tunisia when it comes out in January.
This series just gets better and better. Thank you Indy and the team.
Thank you for watching!
Damn Indy, you've gotta hold back on the spoilers. Don't want to risk spoiling the ending!
The very BEST telling of this story that I have ever had the pleasure to see. You are a superb historian, and I feel deeply grateful for your providing this. Thank you.
Thanks James. All our hard work is only made possible by the support of our fantastic community so consider joining the TimeGhost Army or supporting us on Patreon if you want to help us keep getting even better!
For anyone wondering, yes, planet Uranus and the urine have the same etymology.
Are you sure? Wiktionary seems to give different etymologies.
@@seneca983 Yes, I'm sure
@@VladTevez Do you have a reference?
@@seneca983 en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BF%E1%BD%96%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%BD and en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BF%E1%BD%90%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%82
@@seneca983 check the words οὖρον and οὐρανός
I‘ve read countless eye witness reports of the battle of stalingrad and it is amazing to see the action now at this scale!!
"It was a little hit by the enemy"
Oh, so no too bad...
"150 died"
oh...
Churchill had a good quote about this point in the war, which (like many Churchill quotes) isn't literally true but summarizes other things that are true: "Before Alamein, we never had a victory; after Alamein, we never had a defeat!"
I like what James Dunningan said about this part of the war. 'The Allies stopped making mistakes'.
And the mistakes the axis made earlier started to show...
The dramatic writing and reading is compelling. Brilliant stuff.
We're glad to hear that, thanks!
Love the content, altho I don't see any soviet sources when quoting. Would be great to see how the opposite sides see same battle and war in general.
Hi Indy
Exciting week..
Finally operation uranus.. Now can understand how sixth army lose in stalingrad and sufferings of soldiers..
Can't wait for upcoming week..
So finally axis losing..
Thanks for the another history content..
Given that barbarossa means red beard, my head cannon is that Operation Uranus' name is actually "Operation clean shave"
there is also a danish tv series about the raid on the heavy water plant, its called: kampen om det tunge vand. ( translated from danish = the battle for the heavy water ) it was a good series if i remember right, its been some time since i last saw it
Uuuh, a new episode! I wonder what will happen this week? The Germans will surely finally take Stalingrad, after all they already hold 90% of it... Hitler will surely spend the week with a feeling of joy and accomplishment. For Paulus... maybe even a promotion to Field Marshal? Anyway, I'm of to watch the episode.
Ive been to Vemork and the local town Rjukan. The valleys are so steep they have put mirrors on the mountain side to deflect sunlight into the town square. Its all in the shadow on southern Norways highest peak Gaustatoppen, which you can take a lift to the top inside the mountain like a Bond villain. It is all worth a visit
Zeitzler: "The Russians are in no position to mount any offensives."
6th army: "Uh you were saying?"
Always good to probe into Uranus.
The western part of USSR will be Germany's India
~ Austrian painter at the beginning of barbarossa
With the difference that the native population wouldnt be alive
This is the episode I've been waiting for, ever since I began to wonder why I and several of my friends at school were all born in August 1943! Quite suddenly people in Britain could begin to look forward to a world in which they could bring up children in peace and safety - particularly those who might have finished up in a concentration camp if the Nazis had won.
Rommel on the Run in North Africa
The Americans slowly but surely taking the upper hand on Guadalcanal
And the 6th Army about to be encirceld in Stalingrad
November 1942 is surely not a good month for the Axis
Couldn’t imagine a better birthday present - Uranus commencing!
It's funny how Indy points his finger straight at the camera when he says "operation Uranus."
It would be great to do the history on some of these units: the Australian 7th Division for example that are now pushing on Gona in PNG, last year (1941) had been instrumental in taking Syria and Lebanon from the Vichy French and had elements in the siege of Tobruk. Its a bit of a switch going from desert to jungle warfare.
Romanian soldier: sir the Soviets are attacking
Romanian general: the Soviets can attack??!!
RS: so what do we do?
RG: Idk, I didn't think that far ahead...
To be honest, it was the German's fault for placing Romanian troops at a long frontline with totally insufficient antitank capabilities. If they had been properly equipped, they would have certainly fought better. German strategy in the Stalingrad campaign was very bad and far too optimistic.
@@michaelkovacic2608Supposedly, Germans even stripped Roumanians from some of their already sparse artillery park for city fighting,so they fought with even less guns than they reached the Volga 2 months earlier.
@@michaelkovacic2608 To be honest, this is war. The Red Army preparation was done with good hiding of there troops concentration, tanks drove only in the night to be not spotted, the radio operator send fake messages, the secret service is working to stray wrong informations, and so on.
The axis had to thin out there lines, because the Red Army fought everywhere so hard. The generals responsible was no amateurs, and if they had more antitank guns, and more of everything, they would have equipped the other axis forces as well.
I agree, the Romanians are not to blame. It was the Red Army, what did that incredible good job, forced the enemy to concentrate its forces in the city, and attacked on the weakest flanks.
@@kaletovhangar This is the kind of thing I can believe without prove.
Human behavior is trully majestic.
@@michaelschmid9567 I fully agree with you. It is of course beyond doubt that German generals were not new to the job. But basically ignoring the flanks and hoping that you win quickly enough before the enemy can exploit the situation is just so ... typically German, I would say. They always underestimated their opponents.
My grandfather died at Kletskaia in that day.R.I.P
"Ching" Lee was something else, a "marksman Admiral". Drachinifel has a special on him. A very intelligent man, a good leader and the ultimate gunner Admiral.
Here the video is th-cam.com/video/58lfaMFUQc0/w-d-xo.html
i was looking to see if someone had said this already before i did myself lol.
Drachinifel is fantastic
@@saintleibowitz8401 he is indeed. And apparently a nice guy, we have friends in common on the reenactment scene who speaks well of him.
Has anyone else noticed the small cracks forming on the 9th 14th and 13th Romanian division boxes at 8:50?