The heavy concentration of German reinforcements in the area around Caen is probably the most misunderstood and under appreciated element of the Battle of Normandy. I was glad to see them point that out.
Having read into it, it annoys me no end when you see people basically going "British troops were rubbish" or basically bigging up the Germans as it were. As another commenter points out, the Germans had their best panzer divisions there, particularly fanatical SS ones who often did fight to the last man. To that end, the only way to victory was to essentially wear the German forces down which was not what the Allies were expecting. When they had faced Rommel in the past, he often deployed a flexible series of defences as he had done in North Africa and Italy. Here though, he was ordered by Hitler to give up no ground at all, even when his forces were still in range of Allied naval guns. In the end, this just made the breakthrough all the more spectacular when it did happen. Also worth noting that while the Allies failed to take most of their initial targets on D-day, they expected to take Paris in around 90 days. I believe they achieved it 10 days earlier than planned, but that never gets mentioned for some reason, especially in comparison to the D-day targets anyway...
Should def watch Eastory series! When you can, react to the eastern front through the years (from 1941 till 1945). It's impressive the details in the videos, you'd def like it
@@thedoctor755 The war was "truly" fought all over the world. People over the last 10 years have been trying to make-up for the lack of coverage in the Eastern front of WW2 from that time prior but have now been going to far with it, making it sound like the rest of the war didn't even matter and had no effect on how the war ended. The Allied efforts in WW2 played a major impact in the USSR winning the war. The Axis had more then 50% of their airforce at all times facing up against the Western allies. The Germans dedicated more then 50% of their GDP to air-defense equipment while only using 3% on armored equipment because of the allied bombings of Germany and other Axis nations. The Axis also had to keep millions of men to cover their captured territory and held within their own home territory to fight defensively against the threat of the allied invasion force and the allied bombing campaigns. The Eastern front of WW2 was the major front in terms of on the ground fighting from 1941 onwards but people (especially on the internet) are now starting to over compensate on how important the Eastern front was to the rest of the countries fighting in the war. It is completely arguable that the USSR does not win the war against the Axis forces if the Axis were at peace with the rest of the world. The USSR is then not getting lend lease supplies, which was far more then just military equipment that people like to focus on. Millions of tons of medical and logistical equipment were sent to the USSR prior to the millions of tons of military equipment was sent to the USSR. In addition to that the Axis then could have been buying oil and other supplies from American companies greatly helping their war effort. And most of all with out the allies in the war that opens of millions more Germans who were defending the coasts of their captured territories and operating air-defense roles to be able to help on the Eastern front of the war as either front line soldiers or in logistical roles. The Germans would also have been able to stop building and dedicating so much of their GDP to air-defense equipment and instead build anything else they wanted to in order to help win the war in the East (trains, supply planes, more tanks, ect).
Yeah if i could only subscribe to 5 channels Eastory would be one of them. The graphic overview of the flow of the war is just awesome, fills out the history so well
236k subs, holy cow my friend. Been here since 20k and have always relied on you to teach me the history that I didn't learn in school. Thank you so much
I find eastory to be an incredible visual resource for students, especially those versed in geography. The context eastory’s maps give to the eastern front helps a lot in grasping the sequence of events there.
You mentioned conscripts at the beginning, one of my favorite things about Saving Private Ryan is their attention to detail in this matter. In the Normandy scene there are 2 defending soldiers that try to surrender and they are shot dead by the Americans. They were in fact speaking Czech and were trying to explain that they were not the enemy.
@@2Links Really? where did you hear that? I am a patrion of the WW2 channel but have not heard at all that he left the project. If he did I'm not sure who is working on the maps now as they still seem like his work.
@@b4nterontilt they are still using all of his maps and templates, suggesting that within Timeghost he likely handed off to an apparently well/trained successor, as the quality has continued (thus I have to believe they’re still using the same sources as Eastory does) and again it’s still the same style, while Eastory still makes occasional map videos of his own on his channel.
Coen: he is not really that detailed. He never mentioned that Canadians landed on Juno beach, lumped them in with the British . Only mentioned Canada in passing. Canada was the only nation to surpass their objectives on D Day, and had to help the British out by taking an airfield. As well, he did not mention the Battle of the scheldt, where Canadians with help from Polish and British troops cleared the estuary around Antwerp. Canada made their own declaration of war, independent of Britain, unlike other British dominions like Australia and New Zealand. South Africa, Tonga declared war independently as well, though Tonga was not a dominion.
Another reason for the speed of the Allied invasion mid-july to late-october is due the fact that they are "retaking" land. In contrast of invading an hostile country, the allied forces did gain alot of support from the French and Belgian population. They could/would aid the forces in giving directions and shortcuts; insight information of the enemy movements, storages, etc... The Allied forces had much less to worry about having an police force to control the civilians, as most civilians would not try to sabotage the Allied forces. Also clearly compared to the last stand in Germany, the German forces could not count on civilian support in resisting the Allied invasions. The Germans were on their own, outnumbered on hostile ground; no matter what they did, no matter who was in control, it was a battle they could not win.
So very happy to see you reacting to Eastory. The Georg Elser video is one I listen to often. Same with the Estonian war of independence. Been recommending it to you a long time.
*Dunkirk didn't fall to the allies until the official German surrender. In fact its the scene of the last German offensive in France April 1945. They managed to surprise the Allies and advanced 15 or so kilometers and held the gains until the end.. Mark Felton has a video on it called 'Operation Blücher: The Last German Attack in France, April 1945'
Again your quickly became one of my favorite history channels!! Love this channel and history underground! Keep up the great Commentary! I’m learning so much!
Chris, on the British and Canadians training/experience/morale. The training was excellent on the whole, so taking 6th Airborne as an example; they did a lot of simulation down to the section level, on the assaults on the bridges and Merville battery so everyone knew the plans without needing orders and that NCO could act under their own initiative because the assaults were in darkness- I have this first hand from Major John Howard himself, when I met him in 1984 because I asked him how did they prepare. Experience and morale was mixed, most of the Canadians did not have much combat experience but had exceptional morale, where as the vastly experiences British 7th Armoured (the desert rats) had a great deal of experience fighting in North Africa, but their morale was not as good (, because they were battle fatigued) and some of these units were closer to mutiny; because they believed they had done their duty already.
For anyone interested in Market Garden but have seen A Bridge Too Far too many times, may I recommend the movie Theirs is the Glory (pssst, its on youtube). Filmed in 1946 in the same locations and many of the extras being veterans of the battle of Arnhem itself. For British WW2 buffs, the Battle of Arnhem is arguably more significant than Dunkirk, el Alamein, D-day etc. To this day, Dutch school children pay tribute to the allied lost in that battle, despite the failure meaning they had to wait for about 6 months longer for liberation.
He makes amazing videos, i highly recommend you watch estonia independece war 1918 by eastory, it gives you perspective of smaller eastern europpean nations of ww1 and russian empire transfer to soviet union.
Yes also the “new” Great War channel’s videos on the Latvian War of Independence, where after three years of German military rule the the long-standing Baltic German lords briefly re-established their sovereignty over Latvia for the first time since the 1500s, with the brief formation of a vassal state of the German Empire in 1918, followed by German reconquest in 1919 in which settlement in Courland and Livonia was promised to the German Freikorpsman, with a Baltic German republic formed, but this was again defeated, in part by British pressure. This aborted quest for settlement in the East is what largely led to the “stab in the back” idea, much more so than the western front. There was a a sense that Germany had been denied its destiny in the east that it was beginning pacification of the “wild” Eastern Baltic for settlement, akin to other settler projects and much closer to the German heart than their lost colonies in Africa.
Just want to point out that we British had the most elite German units on our side 5 elite SS panzer divisions the fighting around Caen was some of the most brutal combat in Europe with higher casualty rates per person than Stalingrad.
There was a POW camp in Macon Georgia, and my dad remembers my grandfather using them to work at the farm which all produce went to the war effort and leader occupation.
My great grandfather was a barber at Westover Air Force Base in Western Mass, which was a major jumping point to fly to Europe and back again to the states during WW2. My grandfather was in 8th grade during this time and dropped out to help his father. He told me he had extra jobs on base bringing supplies to the large amount of German POWs they had on base. They'd stop there before being transferred to camps inland. My grandfather had told me what it was like talking to the men, listening to them joking or telling stories of where they were from.
Huge WWII fan and love your channel. Wanted to add about the POW camp system you brought up. My hometown was one of those towns who took in German POWs. Algona, IA. If you get a chance, we have a nativity scene that was built by those POWs and is wonderful to take in especially during the Christmas season. They are also making a movie called Silent Night currently to tell that story
Technically the bridge at arnhem wasnt the last bridge. The last bridge was to be further north but when 30 corps advance through Nijmegen didnt go smoothly and arnhem was likely to fall, the final bridge landing was cancelled. I believe it was a scottish paratrooper brigade that was planned to carry that last drop out but dont quote me on that. People often combine the market garden plans with what was to follow it and miss out the final stage which is the thrust to the sea. Market garden was supposed to cross the rhine and snatch a channel port. From there the supply situation would be fixed enough for the attack into germany.
There is no bridge north of Arnhem. At least, none of military importance that the Allies needed to get across. The next stage after Market Garden was to be twofold. First, a hook north east to get behind the Siegrfried Line/Reichswald and into the Ruhr area. The second part, much less discussed, was a push NNW along the IJssel river. This would cut off the Germans 25th Army in Holland and hopefully deliver the Dutch ports into allied hands, plus the Scheldt estuary. That was the important part because at this stage of the war, all supplies were still being moved through Normandy, and they were running out. People love shittalking Monty over Market Garden, but it was the best plan the allies had to do something decisive with the last of their supplies. It sure beats out Patton's lunge into the middle of Germany, which would only make the supply situation worse.
Minor correction & something Eastory should have made a slightly bigger point about -- Germans around D-Day did NOT just retreat and let Americans get the port of Cherbourg, but there was a tenacious defense with port facilities completely wrecked. To the point that the defending senior officer Admiral Hennecke was awarded the knight's cross. Check out Wikipedia article and an excellent video on the subject by Mark Felton. A common saying "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics." It's particularly true in war, hence all the mention of ports and supply lines, bridges, lines of advance & retreat.
I'm no historian so please don't be too mad at me. I know a lot of patriotic Americans will be. Every time WW2 is discussed I hear everyone talk about America as this saviour and the ones who "won the war" and I just don't agree. I think the Russians and even the brits did far more. I just hate how America is protraied in WW2. I'm not saying they didnt have an impact but when we talk about ww2 I think the eastern front is more important. Not necessarily because of the Russians but because of the weather the casualties and morale hits taken in the push for russia and the oul fields are not talked about enough (I know this is a few years earlier) but still.
I hear that sometimes from non-Americans but I can honestly say I've never heard an American talk as though the US won the war on its own or that somehow we were the Saviors.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Wow, thank you I wasn't expecting a reply. I hope I didn't offend. I suppose in video games such as call of duty world at war and more so in call of duty ww2 it seems like Americans are portrayed as such. Obviously these aren't great sources but they were probably some of my first times being exposed to ww2. I'm sure I've gotten this from other sources of media too but again I suppose it's conformational bias on an opinion I already had formed. I will try to combat this a little in the future. On a side note I love the content especially the more European centred content. I can't wait until you visit France hopefully next year.
As a German it's actually good to see the POW numbers. Every POW is at least one life saved. A life of a German, an ally, civilians and generally making the war shorter.
@Robert Kaevur Im guessing if the U.S. and the U.K. were being defiled by the germans like the russians and the french, and a lot of other nations, they wouldnt treat the germans so kindly, which in turn made the germans more open to surrendering to the british and the americans
There is an amazing Dutch movie about the clearance of the waterways towards Antwerp called "De Slag om de Schelde"which is the most expensive Dutch film ever made.
Here’s how the allies looked at Caen. They viewed it as a hinge of a door. If the Germans had it, they could close the door so to speak on the allies. If we contest it, the hinge can’t close the door and the door can be swung wide open which is what happened.
The documentary series on the Space Race (with Werner Von Braun and Sergei Korolev) features the German V2 rocket scientists POWs for a time in one of these American POW camps (possibly in Alabama or somewhere else in the South).
Probably been recommended to you but Kings and Generals have started doing a docuseries on the Pacific Theater and I'd love to hear your inputs on everything so far
Something you touch on is what's happening on the eastern front. At the same time the Germans seem to be collapsing in the West, the Soviets launch operation Bagration. So in the same time period that the allies are pushing out of France, the Soviets annihilate an entire German Army group. So one could be forgiven for looking at how things were developing and assume the German's were on their last legs. Operation Market Garden makes a lot more sense within the context of everything else that is happening. The allies assume that if they can just take the German Industrial centers, then the war would be effectively over.
on the german discussion of how to contain the landings. we know now that they made the wrong call, the Normandy breakout was more important than the landings themself, as seen in 6 weeks they doubled what took 6 weeks to get. you need to prevent any kind of beachhead. but at the end of the day, they still faced the same dwindling reserves while America had millions more men and supplies. even if they halted the Normandy landings, they could have still landed in the south, tried Callaise, or devout more to the Italian offensive.
Eastory is a great channel. They help do the maps for Indy Neidell and Timeghost History’s WW2 channel. This Western Front series is pretty good but their Eastern Front series is amazing and really helps give you perspective on the sheer scale of that fighting.
Eastory is an AWESOME channel! Been following it for a while now. Re your question, would you please react to "Germany vs Poland" (sorry, I am biased), or "Estonian war of Independence", or perhaps "Second Sino-Japanese War". Cheers! Ps: Get well and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Great video. I think this is one of those videos that's gonna boost your viewership. I know that's not why you made it, but ..... that's what's gonna happen.
The terrain also played into how the Germans deployed their forces. The terrain in the British sector was good tank country whereas the American sector was primarily bocage.
I hope that you react to more of OSP and maybe even try out some of CGP grey. Probably the most reccommended of CGP greys videos would be the Tale of Tiffany. And i somewhat agree
Since you've been doing more Alternate History reactions lately, id recomend reacting to "WhatIfAltHist" he has a lot of great Alternate History vids, but also some "predicting" the future vids Id love to see your thought on his interpretations of things (Also great job on the videos, i always love having second opinions to verify, debunk, or simply give a different view on things)
There's a decent Dutch war movie on Netflix about the Battle of the Scheldt, and the fighting in Zeeland. It's called The Forgotten Battle, and worth watching.
When you mentioned the fictitious army across from Calais you referred to it as Pattons army but if I remember correctly and I could be wrong but I thought Patton was in Italy at the time and the army was thought up of by Dwight D Eisenhower and was under his command again could be wrong
The main problem with Market Garden was that the plan had zero flexibility. It had to succeed at every point or the whole thing was a failure. If the 101st failed to achieve their objectives around Eindhoven, then the 82nd Airborne would have faced annihilation and none of the British1st Airborne division soldiers that did escape would have. If the 82nd Airborne failed at Nijmegen, then none of the British 1st Airborne soldiers would have got out. Plus, I forget the Polish Airborne Brigade. They would have been in the same position as the British 1st Airborne and that Brigade took heavy casualties as it was. Add to that, 30th Corp only had a single avenue of approach along what was eventually nicknamed Hell's Highway. The territory that was captured was of very little value, seeing as the idea was to win the war with one bold stroke. Finally; as the video pointed out, Antwerp wasn't much value until it's connection to the sea was opened and the Allied concentration on trying to pull off Market Garden prevented that from happening in a timely manner. It's no secret that Field Marshall Montgomery's reputation with many Americans wasn't very high, but he was normally excellent at planning. Much of the success of the Normandy invasion can be attributed to his and his staff's thorough planning, but not on this occasion. Both conceptually and in its details, Market Garden was a terribly flawed plan.
I liked the maps and the way they moved the line so you could see how the Allies progressed across Europe. I wish the ABT would show live maps like that.
There are some reaction videos that I think I could get the same gist by just watching the original video. This however, I don't even want to watch the original because of how much context you added to just this one alone
It's always the same places where fighting becomes fierce. Same places where you had the big conflicts 2000 years ago. It's a very good example for how important terrain is for strategy. Lorraine in German is Lothringen, which is named after King Lothar, one of the three grandsons of Charlemagne. Who immediately got crushed by his two brothers who had inherited France and Germany. And then it remained more of the same for the next thousand years.
Small correction, King Lothaire I was deposed by his three sons, and it was King Lothaire II who was crushed by his Uncles, Charles the Bald of West Francia (France) and Louis (Ludwig) the German of East Francia (Germany)
I think you should also check out Count Dankula's "Absolute Mad Lad" series at some point. He does in depth biographics of historical figures that you can consider as "Mad Lads". Even if you're not going to react to it, you should at least check out the series.
I recently discovered that the radio broadcasts from D-Day is all on youtube. It's fascinating to me. I'm sure it would bore many but I'm about 2 hours in so far.
My Granny (Grandma) grew up in a village in Scotland during WW2, she has said she remembers POWs being sent to her village and they would lodge in some peoples houses, and that they would go to different houses each week to have a bath and have meals cooked for them
Hope you have a wonderful holiday with the family by the way. I see this community as our own little family, I don't know if you do- but I genuinely do :) (Also I'm sick too coincidentally, and it's also not covid) Hope we get better soon, much love :D
Well, the Germans didn;t give time to the British at Dunkirk either They didn't stall for the sake of allying with Britain in the future They tried their hardest to take them down and they failed because of the fierce resistance
The Germans tried their hardest to pursue the British with everything they had. But they were over extended and exhausted. Pop history believes that France fell without a fight and the it was just a picnic for the Panzers. It was not. While France did fall remarkably fast it was still hard fighting. The Germans didn't let us go. They were stopped.
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The heavy concentration of German reinforcements in the area around Caen is probably the most misunderstood and under appreciated element of the Battle of Normandy. I was glad to see them point that out.
Yeah, I think the german best of the best panzer divs were used in that battle
Having read into it, it annoys me no end when you see people basically going "British troops were rubbish" or basically bigging up the Germans as it were. As another commenter points out, the Germans had their best panzer divisions there, particularly fanatical SS ones who often did fight to the last man. To that end, the only way to victory was to essentially wear the German forces down which was not what the Allies were expecting. When they had faced Rommel in the past, he often deployed a flexible series of defences as he had done in North Africa and Italy. Here though, he was ordered by Hitler to give up no ground at all, even when his forces were still in range of Allied naval guns. In the end, this just made the breakthrough all the more spectacular when it did happen.
Also worth noting that while the Allies failed to take most of their initial targets on D-day, they expected to take Paris in around 90 days. I believe they achieved it 10 days earlier than planned, but that never gets mentioned for some reason, especially in comparison to the D-day targets anyway...
Should def watch Eastory series! When you can, react to the eastern front through the years (from 1941 till 1945). It's impressive the details in the videos, you'd def like it
Indeed, the Russian Front. Where the war was truly fought, in terms of sheer human effort and sacrifice.
@Robert Kaevur He was - he left in order to work on his own channel and other projects last year I believe.
@@thedoctor755 The war was "truly" fought all over the world. People over the last 10 years have been trying to make-up for the lack of coverage in the Eastern front of WW2 from that time prior but have now been going to far with it, making it sound like the rest of the war didn't even matter and had no effect on how the war ended. The Allied efforts in WW2 played a major impact in the USSR winning the war. The Axis had more then 50% of their airforce at all times facing up against the Western allies. The Germans dedicated more then 50% of their GDP to air-defense equipment while only using 3% on armored equipment because of the allied bombings of Germany and other Axis nations. The Axis also had to keep millions of men to cover their captured territory and held within their own home territory to fight defensively against the threat of the allied invasion force and the allied bombing campaigns.
The Eastern front of WW2 was the major front in terms of on the ground fighting from 1941 onwards but people (especially on the internet) are now starting to over compensate on how important the Eastern front was to the rest of the countries fighting in the war. It is completely arguable that the USSR does not win the war against the Axis forces if the Axis were at peace with the rest of the world. The USSR is then not getting lend lease supplies, which was far more then just military equipment that people like to focus on. Millions of tons of medical and logistical equipment were sent to the USSR prior to the millions of tons of military equipment was sent to the USSR. In addition to that the Axis then could have been buying oil and other supplies from American companies greatly helping their war effort. And most of all with out the allies in the war that opens of millions more Germans who were defending the coasts of their captured territories and operating air-defense roles to be able to help on the Eastern front of the war as either front line soldiers or in logistical roles. The Germans would also have been able to stop building and dedicating so much of their GDP to air-defense equipment and instead build anything else they wanted to in order to help win the war in the East (trains, supply planes, more tanks, ect).
Definitely second watching the Eastern front, it's an excellent video
Yeah if i could only subscribe to 5 channels Eastory would be one of them. The graphic overview of the flow of the war is just awesome, fills out the history so well
236k subs, holy cow my friend. Been here since 20k and have always relied on you to teach me the history that I didn't learn in school. Thank you so much
Thanks for sticking around since nearly the beginning. Grateful for your support.
🇫🇷🇺🇸🇬🇧🇺🇦🇷🇺
I find eastory to be an incredible visual resource for students, especially those versed in geography. The context eastory’s maps give to the eastern front helps a lot in grasping the sequence of events there.
You mentioned conscripts at the beginning, one of my favorite things about Saving Private Ryan is their attention to detail in this matter. In the Normandy scene there are 2 defending soldiers that try to surrender and they are shot dead by the Americans. They were in fact speaking Czech and were trying to explain that they were not the enemy.
Do eastern front as well
I believe Eastory does the maps for the 'World War Two" week by week channel.
He used to, but left last year I believe
@@2Links Really? where did you hear that? I am a patrion of the WW2 channel but have not heard at all that he left the project. If he did I'm not sure who is working on the maps now as they still seem like his work.
@@PhillyPhanVinny On ig i asked them about it. They said Eastory no longer makes maps for them to due to his lack of time
@@b4nterontilt they are still using all of his maps and templates, suggesting that within Timeghost he likely handed off to an apparently well/trained successor, as the quality has continued (thus I have to believe they’re still using the same sources as Eastory does) and again it’s still the same style, while Eastory still makes occasional map videos of his own on his channel.
I love your videos so much
Please consider Eastory's depiction of the Eastern Front. It would be amazing, if it would be presented on your channel.
Lets go, was waiting for Eastory videos!
I absolutely love learning history through map visuals. It's always been such a cool experience looking at circling movements & taking cities.
Eastory is great channel, def watch the eastern front next
His Eastern front videos are also amazing. Really detailed!
Coen: he is not really that detailed. He never mentioned that Canadians landed on Juno beach, lumped them in with the British . Only mentioned Canada in passing. Canada was the only nation to surpass their objectives on D Day, and had to help the British out by taking an airfield. As well, he did not mention the Battle of the scheldt, where Canadians with help from Polish and British troops cleared the estuary around Antwerp.
Canada made their own declaration of war, independent of Britain, unlike other British dominions like Australia and New Zealand. South Africa, Tonga declared war independently as well, though Tonga was not a dominion.
Pretty easy to just forget Canada exists. Most of the world does it everyday.
Hope you are feeling better today, you do a great job with these reactions. I might not always agree with you, but I respect your views.
Appreciate that Ron! And you're always welcome to express those disagreements. That's how we learn and grow, to have our views challenged.
Another reason for the speed of the Allied invasion mid-july to late-october is due the fact that they are "retaking" land. In contrast of invading an hostile country, the allied forces did gain alot of support from the French and Belgian population. They could/would aid the forces in giving directions and shortcuts; insight information of the enemy movements, storages, etc... The Allied forces had much less to worry about having an police force to control the civilians, as most civilians would not try to sabotage the Allied forces. Also clearly compared to the last stand in Germany, the German forces could not count on civilian support in resisting the Allied invasions. The Germans were on their own, outnumbered on hostile ground; no matter what they did, no matter who was in control, it was a battle they could not win.
I really enjoyed this Eastory video. It was very easy to understand and follow the progress.
So very happy to see you reacting to Eastory. The Georg Elser video is one I listen to often. Same with the Estonian war of independence. Been recommending it to you a long time.
Armchair historian released a video about the Eastern front. "deadliest battle in history: Stalingrad" I think you should react to it!
Finally something from Eastory👍
Eastory is great. Love your commentary!
I liked this one. You added a lot more than I expected, given your illness, which was great. Thanks.
*Dunkirk didn't fall to the allies until the official German surrender. In fact its the scene of the last German offensive in France April 1945. They managed to surprise the Allies and advanced 15 or so kilometers and held the gains until the end.. Mark Felton has a video on it called 'Operation Blücher: The Last German Attack in France, April 1945'
Again your quickly became one of my favorite history channels!! Love this channel and history underground! Keep up the great
Commentary! I’m learning so much!
the eastern front vids of this channel are awesome, very recommended.
Chris, on the British and Canadians training/experience/morale.
The training was excellent on the whole, so taking 6th Airborne as an example; they did a lot of simulation down to the section level, on the assaults on the bridges and Merville battery so everyone knew the plans without needing orders and that NCO could act under their own initiative because the assaults were in darkness- I have this first hand from Major John Howard himself, when I met him in 1984 because I asked him how did they prepare.
Experience and morale was mixed, most of the Canadians did not have much combat experience but had exceptional morale, where as the vastly experiences British 7th Armoured (the desert rats) had a great deal of experience fighting in North Africa, but their morale was not as good (, because they were battle fatigued) and some of these units were closer to mutiny; because they believed they had done their duty already.
good video excited for part 2
Great stuff man ! Keep it up!
Always glad to see new videos, but don't push yourself too hard. I'd hate to see you make yourself sicker. Take care, my friend.
Can we expect next part of Napoleonic Wars from Epic History?
You should definitely react to Eastern Front series next
For anyone interested in Market Garden but have seen A Bridge Too Far too many times, may I recommend the movie Theirs is the Glory (pssst, its on youtube). Filmed in 1946 in the same locations and many of the extras being veterans of the battle of Arnhem itself. For British WW2 buffs, the Battle of Arnhem is arguably more significant than Dunkirk, el Alamein, D-day etc. To this day, Dutch school children pay tribute to the allied lost in that battle, despite the failure meaning they had to wait for about 6 months longer for liberation.
Thank god it’s just a cold stay safe and stay healthy love your content
He makes amazing videos, i highly recommend you watch estonia independece war 1918 by eastory, it gives you perspective of smaller eastern europpean nations of ww1 and russian empire transfer to soviet union.
Yes also the “new” Great War channel’s videos on the Latvian War of Independence, where after three years of German military rule the the long-standing Baltic German lords briefly re-established their sovereignty over Latvia for the first time since the 1500s, with the brief formation of a vassal state of the German Empire in 1918, followed by German reconquest in 1919 in which settlement in Courland and Livonia was promised to the German Freikorpsman, with a Baltic German republic formed, but this was again defeated, in part by British pressure. This aborted quest for settlement in the East is what largely led to the “stab in the back” idea, much more so than the western front. There was a a sense that Germany had been denied its destiny in the east that it was beginning pacification of the “wild” Eastern Baltic for settlement, akin to other settler projects and much closer to the German heart than their lost colonies in Africa.
Do his videos on Barbarossa, the numbers are huge
Great reaction video, keep it up! :)
A good video, I will be checking out Eastport. Thanks for introducing it.
I found Eastory 6 months ago and they have a video on the Eastern front as well
Hope your cold goes away
At Juno, you can still see parts of the artificial Harbour. Pretty cool
ABSOLUTELY UNREAL
Eastory is such a great channel, you should react to their video on the Estonian war of independence.
Eastory is such an underrated channel
Finally Eastory too! Great Video, looking forward to more of him
Eastory is great.
Just want to point out that we British had the most elite German units on our side 5 elite SS panzer divisions the fighting around Caen was some of the most brutal combat in Europe with higher casualty rates per person than Stalingrad.
Sadly we don't have a Hollywood to rewrite history and make it look that Omaha was the biggest thing since sliced bread
Finally eastory! My favorite. I would vote for the deluge series about the polish Lithuania common wealth!
I like his style a lot.
Would love to get your opinion and see your reaction to Cottereau 100 greatest Generals
Hope your feeling better !!
There was a POW camp in Macon Georgia, and my dad remembers my grandfather using them to work at the farm which all produce went to the war effort and leader occupation.
Eastory maps are best I have seen fantastic.
My great grandfather was a barber at Westover Air Force Base in Western Mass, which was a major jumping point to fly to Europe and back again to the states during WW2. My grandfather was in 8th grade during this time and dropped out to help his father. He told me he had extra jobs on base bringing supplies to the large amount of German POWs they had on base. They'd stop there before being transferred to camps inland. My grandfather had told me what it was like talking to the men, listening to them joking or telling stories of where they were from.
I really like the map where you can follow the troops as he is explaining whats going on, really cool channel!
Huge WWII fan and love your channel. Wanted to add about the POW camp system you brought up. My hometown was one of those towns who took in German POWs. Algona, IA. If you get a chance, we have a nativity scene that was built by those POWs and is wonderful to take in especially during the Christmas season. They are also making a movie called Silent Night currently to tell that story
th-cam.com/video/QPrJ_cYvvzs/w-d-xo.html
YES YOU FINALLY DID IT
Technically the bridge at arnhem wasnt the last bridge. The last bridge was to be further north but when 30 corps advance through Nijmegen didnt go smoothly and arnhem was likely to fall, the final bridge landing was cancelled. I believe it was a scottish paratrooper brigade that was planned to carry that last drop out but dont quote me on that.
People often combine the market garden plans with what was to follow it and miss out the final stage which is the thrust to the sea. Market garden was supposed to cross the rhine and snatch a channel port. From there the supply situation would be fixed enough for the attack into germany.
There is no bridge north of Arnhem. At least, none of military importance that the Allies needed to get across.
The next stage after Market Garden was to be twofold. First, a hook north east to get behind the Siegrfried Line/Reichswald and into the Ruhr area. The second part, much less discussed, was a push NNW along the IJssel river. This would cut off the Germans 25th Army in Holland and hopefully deliver the Dutch ports into allied hands, plus the Scheldt estuary.
That was the important part because at this stage of the war, all supplies were still being moved through Normandy, and they were running out.
People love shittalking Monty over Market Garden, but it was the best plan the allies had to do something decisive with the last of their supplies. It sure beats out Patton's lunge into the middle of Germany, which would only make the supply situation worse.
His eastern front videos are really good too. That's how I initially found his channel. Would love to see more Eastory videos.
One of my favorite ww2 movies is on market garden manly Arnhem (A bridge to far)
Minor correction & something Eastory should have made a slightly bigger point about -- Germans around D-Day did NOT just retreat and let Americans get the port of Cherbourg, but there was a tenacious defense with port facilities completely wrecked. To the point that the defending senior officer Admiral Hennecke was awarded the knight's cross. Check out Wikipedia article and an excellent video on the subject by Mark Felton.
A common saying "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics." It's particularly true in war, hence all the mention of ports and supply lines, bridges, lines of advance & retreat.
Excellent!!!
Bro a tier of this war like ww1 would be awesome
A bridge to far , what a movie I definitely recommend that
You should look up the series War between the factories , you might get a few surprises
I'm no historian so please don't be too mad at me. I know a lot of patriotic Americans will be.
Every time WW2 is discussed I hear everyone talk about America as this saviour and the ones who "won the war" and I just don't agree. I think the Russians and even the brits did far more. I just hate how America is protraied in WW2. I'm not saying they didnt have an impact but when we talk about ww2 I think the eastern front is more important. Not necessarily because of the Russians but because of the weather the casualties and morale hits taken in the push for russia and the oul fields are not talked about enough (I know this is a few years earlier) but still.
I hear that sometimes from non-Americans but I can honestly say I've never heard an American talk as though the US won the war on its own or that somehow we were the Saviors.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Wow, thank you I wasn't expecting a reply. I hope I didn't offend. I suppose in video games such as call of duty world at war and more so in call of duty ww2 it seems like Americans are portrayed as such. Obviously these aren't great sources but they were probably some of my first times being exposed to ww2. I'm sure I've gotten this from other sources of media too but again I suppose it's conformational bias on an opinion I already had formed. I will try to combat this a little in the future.
On a side note I love the content especially the more European centred content. I can't wait until you visit France hopefully next year.
As a German it's actually good to see the POW numbers. Every POW is at least one life saved. A life of a German, an ally, civilians and generally making the war shorter.
yeah rip guys on the eastern front though
@Robert Kaevur Im guessing if the U.S. and the U.K. were being defiled by the germans like the russians and the french, and a lot of other nations, they wouldnt treat the germans so kindly, which in turn made the germans more open to surrendering to the british and the americans
There is an amazing Dutch movie about the clearance of the waterways towards Antwerp called "De Slag om de Schelde"which is the most expensive Dutch film ever made.
Here’s how the allies looked at Caen. They viewed it as a hinge of a door. If the Germans had it, they could close the door so to speak on the allies. If we contest it, the hinge can’t close the door and the door can be swung wide open which is what happened.
The documentary series on the Space Race (with Werner Von Braun and Sergei Korolev) features the German V2 rocket scientists POWs for a time in one of these American POW camps (possibly in Alabama or somewhere else in the South).
Probably been recommended to you but Kings and Generals have started doing a docuseries on the Pacific Theater and I'd love to hear your inputs on everything so far
Something you touch on is what's happening on the eastern front. At the same time the Germans seem to be collapsing in the West, the Soviets launch operation Bagration. So in the same time period that the allies are pushing out of France, the Soviets annihilate an entire German Army group. So one could be forgiven for looking at how things were developing and assume the German's were on their last legs. Operation Market Garden makes a lot more sense within the context of everything else that is happening. The allies assume that if they can just take the German Industrial centers, then the war would be effectively over.
You should really react to the eastern front 1941 to 45 it's really great :)
on the german discussion of how to contain the landings. we know now that they made the wrong call, the Normandy breakout was more important than the landings themself, as seen in 6 weeks they doubled what took 6 weeks to get. you need to prevent any kind of beachhead. but at the end of the day, they still faced the same dwindling reserves while America had millions more men and supplies. even if they halted the Normandy landings, they could have still landed in the south, tried Callaise, or devout more to the Italian offensive.
Eastory is a great channel. They help do the maps for Indy Neidell and Timeghost History’s WW2 channel. This Western Front series is pretty good but their Eastern Front series is amazing and really helps give you perspective on the sheer scale of that fighting.
Eastory is an AWESOME channel! Been following it for a while now. Re your question, would you please react to "Germany vs Poland" (sorry, I am biased), or "Estonian war of Independence", or perhaps "Second Sino-Japanese War". Cheers! Ps: Get well and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
As for Eastory, you should definitely check out his Eastern Front Series.
Great video. I think this is one of those videos that's gonna boost your viewership. I know that's not why you made it, but ..... that's what's gonna happen.
I would love to see a reaction to Mr.Betts songs that are about the civil war or John Brown
The terrain also played into how the Germans deployed their forces. The terrain in the British sector was good tank country whereas the American sector was primarily bocage.
Perhaps you can do a reaction video to Mr. Beats Top 10 Presidential Candidates In American History video
This video is gonna be great
Edit: It was amazing
Hello you should react to the the greatest raid of them all, and Jeremy Clarkson the Victoria cross for Valor
"forgotten battle" on netflix is a good movie about clearing the path to Antwerp
I suggest you read Men in German Uniforms: POWs in America during WWII by Antinio Thompson
I hope that you react to more of OSP and maybe even try out some of CGP grey. Probably the most reccommended of CGP greys videos would be the Tale of Tiffany. And i somewhat agree
Since you've been doing more Alternate History reactions lately, id recomend reacting to "WhatIfAltHist"
he has a lot of great Alternate History vids, but also some "predicting" the future vids
Id love to see your thought on his interpretations of things
(Also great job on the videos, i always love having second opinions to verify, debunk, or simply give a different view on things)
''Battle of Caransebes' please
There's a decent Dutch war movie on Netflix about the Battle of the Scheldt, and the fighting in Zeeland. It's called The Forgotten Battle, and worth watching.
When you mentioned the fictitious army across from Calais you referred to it as Pattons army but if I remember correctly and I could be wrong but I thought Patton was in Italy at the time and the army was thought up of by Dwight D Eisenhower and was under his command again could be wrong
Are you on rumble as well?
The main problem with Market Garden was that the plan had zero flexibility. It had to succeed at every point or the whole thing was a failure. If the 101st failed to achieve their objectives around Eindhoven, then the 82nd Airborne would have faced annihilation and none of the British1st Airborne division soldiers that did escape would have. If the 82nd Airborne failed at Nijmegen, then none of the British 1st Airborne soldiers would have got out. Plus, I forget the Polish Airborne Brigade. They would have been in the same position as the British 1st Airborne and that Brigade took heavy casualties as it was. Add to that, 30th Corp only had a single avenue of approach along what was eventually nicknamed Hell's Highway. The territory that was captured was of very little value, seeing as the idea was to win the war with one bold stroke. Finally; as the video pointed out, Antwerp wasn't much value until it's connection to the sea was opened and the Allied concentration on trying to pull off Market Garden prevented that from happening in a timely manner.
It's no secret that Field Marshall Montgomery's reputation with many Americans wasn't very high, but he was normally excellent at planning. Much of the success of the Normandy invasion can be attributed to his and his staff's thorough planning, but not on this occasion. Both conceptually and in its details, Market Garden was a terribly flawed plan.
I liked the maps and the way they moved the line so you could see how the Allies progressed across Europe. I wish the ABT would show live maps like that.
There are some reaction videos that I think I could get the same gist by just watching the original video. This however, I don't even want to watch the original because of how much context you added to just this one alone
It's always the same places where fighting becomes fierce. Same places where you had the big conflicts 2000 years ago. It's a very good example for how important terrain is for strategy.
Lorraine in German is Lothringen, which is named after King Lothar, one of the three grandsons of Charlemagne. Who immediately got crushed by his two brothers who had inherited France and Germany. And then it remained more of the same for the next thousand years.
Small correction, King Lothaire I was deposed by his three sons, and it was King Lothaire II who was crushed by his Uncles, Charles the Bald of West Francia (France) and Louis (Ludwig) the German of East Francia (Germany)
I think you should also check out Count Dankula's "Absolute Mad Lad" series at some point. He does in depth biographics of historical figures that you can consider as "Mad Lads". Even if you're not going to react to it, you should at least check out the series.
I recently discovered that the radio broadcasts from D-Day is all on youtube. It's fascinating to me. I'm sure it would bore many but I'm about 2 hours in so far.
cant watch this guy for more than 2 minutes
My Granny (Grandma) grew up in a village in Scotland during WW2, she has said she remembers POWs being sent to her village and they would lodge in some peoples houses, and that they would go to different houses each week to have a bath and have meals cooked for them
You should react to potential histories video of operation ichi-go
This is going to be good
Hope you have a wonderful holiday with the family by the way.
I see this community as our own little family, I don't know if you do- but I genuinely do :)
(Also I'm sick too coincidentally, and it's also not covid)
Hope we get better soon, much love :D
I absolutely do. I value our community as a family for sure. Feel better soon!
Well, the Germans didn;t give time to the British at Dunkirk either
They didn't stall for the sake of allying with Britain in the future
They tried their hardest to take them down and they failed because of the fierce resistance
The Germans tried their hardest to pursue the British with everything they had.
But they were over extended and exhausted.
Pop history believes that France fell without a fight and the it was just a picnic for the Panzers. It was not. While France did fall remarkably fast it was still hard fighting.
The Germans didn't let us go. They were stopped.