I REALLY appreciated Woody's distinction between "Paratroopers" and "Airborne Infantry". It is a mindblowing fact that while American Paratroopers were an all-volunteer force, the American glider infantry didn't volunteer or even get jump pay for the horrible risk that they were assigned as their duty. What a raw deal!
Hi Woody, my Dad was a glider pilot, 82nd airborne, D-Day. Was dropped behind enemy lines, landed the plane, both wings and the tail were torn off. The two paratroopers and copilot and my Father survived unhurt. The four of them joined other who landed close by, making a force of 210 men. They searched for German Patrols that day, breaking up a few. There luck changed when they were attacked on 3 sides by Germans. Leaving only my Father and two paratroopers. The two paratroopers were killed after one picked up an American hand grenade that was booby trap. My father hid for 6 days between a farmhouse and a hedge, located in St Mere Eglise, under sniper fire, no food and drank rain water from his helmet. Finally on the 6th day he convinced the women in the farmhouse to bring him some milk for 2000 francs and she was induced to bring an American Patrol to rescue him. He didn’t want to take up a hospital bed, he was just hungry, those other guys were injured. He made his way and boarded a Liberty Ship. His name was Second-Lieutenant Charles McCann. His story is in a book called Honour For All, by Allan A Mitchie. Also Newsweek, June 26, 1944, and various other stories. He was a wonderful Dad, lived to 90 years old. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoyed his story.
Regarding Juno beach, by noon on June 7 the Regina Rifles had leapfrogged their position, basically doubling the amount of territory gained by occupying Bretteville, while the Royal Winnipeg Rifles took nearby Putot. This put the Nazis squarely on their back foot, a position they could never recover from. Though the 12 SS and elements of Panzer Lehr battered away at both Canadian positions, even the 12 SS commanders were forced to give an admiring nod to these two regiments who beat them back soundly. Juno was the important Allied armoured lynch pin but the Allies landed way too much armour and infantry for the Nazis to cope with and by June 10 the issue was not in doubt any longer. It would have required the massive movement of Nazi armour from Calais, something Hitler forbade and which would have been near impossible anyway. The die was cast. Thanks for your excellent commentary Paul!
I would be remiss If I did not mention the vital support of the Canadian Scottish and Cameron Highlander regiments in helping to hold Putot. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles were dislodged briefly from Putot on June 8, 1944 but the Canadian Scottish and Cameron Highlanders plugged the gap and retook Putot from the 12 SS. Its control was never in doubt after that. Thank goodness for those tough Scotsmen!
Just stumbled upon this channel and I got to say, you are just down right awesome. I've never seen any channel on youtube or the internet that pays attention to such detail and explains it so thoroughly. I really appreciate the hard work you put into these videos and i hope for more awesome ones like this to come!
Your knowledge on D Day is unparalleled, at least with any other channels or single books. The truth matters, and I appreciate your drive for accuracy. I think the intended audience for his video was to give a broad overview. Your information definitely helped tell the story, but the omissions weren't lies or laziness by him (I'm assuming), but his video wasn't meant to tell every story. Some of the implications you heard weren't issues at all. He didn't give the details you did, but he rarely implied the things you took issue with. Overall, so much of what I know comes from you and a handful of creators. I am grateful. In my personal estimation (this is probably me knit picking), you could have easily added your additional knowledge and made a complete presentation instead of being critical at all. His intended audience was probably for people who don't know as much as you. It's great to add your nuanced understanding, but it didn't come across as creative; only critical. Thank you for your channel and all you do. You are one of the best, and just as you are trying to, I am only trying to help.
Interesting and respectful perspective from Woody on an innovative presentation of D Day. Criticisms can be made, these can be applied to virtually every talk and book! The most important thing is learning so future videos are improved. All presentations, films, videos, books etc. can benefit from informed and judicious editing.
Over all, really enjoyed the original "bird's eye view" and your helping commentary, thank you, Woody and ACH. It disturbs something in me when the dead casualties number has not added to it the wounded, lost as prisoners and missing in action. For example, I was raised to expect to see something on the order of "....There were 4,000 casualties, of which 1,000 were dead, 2500 wounded, 350 lost from having been taken prisoner, and 50 missing in action..." or a mix of the sort.
What I believe I just heard was an addition to this presentation of the invasion for someone like me who has spent a helluva a lot more time studying the Asia-Pacific theater than the ETO. Point 1. He brings this video to our attention. Point 2. 'Well done' is heard throughout the assessment. Point 3. Overall this seems to be assessed at just short of top notch. Point 4. I never heard of this channel in the first place, I'll check it out to see what I can learn and make my own overall judgement. Good 'Reaction Video' although I normally steer clear of anything so titled. I liked Wood's take.
I agree about the pronunciation...I figured it would be something you would comment on...and I guessed at a bunch of the things that you said. But as always when I watch your stuff, I learned a good amount of new things too. 👍
Great critique woody. Realistically the armchair historian is probably a group of people, who research, present and edit these videos. You cannot create a video of that quality alone! They're probably aimed at the huge American market, and I too thought the level of description of British and Canadian beaches was surprisingly fresh for an American presentation. I wish more people would cover the role and bravery of the parachute pathfinders!
Not enough attention to the Royal Marines of 47 Cmd at Port-enBessin; A very important port captured with some unbelievable courage to take very heavily defended trench and casemates, with flakship auto cannons causing mayhem
Well, I was pleased he mentioned them at all to be honest, they normally get ignored. It would have been nice to elaborate on their achievements, but I can see why for brevity's sake he didn't
Caan should have been called a stretch goal. Going 12 kilometers in from an opposed landing and capturing a defended city was far beyond the technology of 80 years ago. After listening to your work on D-day hour by hour I found your critique appropriate.
Really good video. I enjoyed your insight. Anyone can make a video, but it doesn't mean it's accurate or true. One thing, mate, you can use the space bar to pause videos rather than using the cursor all the time.👍
Very informative and constructive video!! Re you being too "picky". Why not! No need to apologise!!! You owe it to the veterans that fought and died there.
Yes Woody, so many historians do not specify casualties properly. Killed, wounded, Missing (prisoners) and then the total. They need to state what the figure are, and be consistent!
Exactly, consistency is key. Like with pronunciation, either use the French way, or Anglo, but stick with it. And with casualties, either compare KIA with KIA or casualties with casualties, and explain the criteria
50:30 why does he show the 12th SS Divisional symbol for “Kampfgruppe Meyer” when 12th SS didn’t reach the Caen front until June 7th? Did he just assume that it must have been a unit of 12th SS, because of its name and because 12th SS was later involved in fighting inland from Juno?
I had the same reaction when I first watched AH's video: thought it was brilliant but annoyed at the odd line like 'failure'. Also the framing of the eastern landings after the American landing section is a prompt to 'if only the Brits' hadn't fxxxed up'. If they have read PCA in advance they would have realised that there was no way a division could have taken Caen on D-day, but the persistence in raising the usual tropes made me think that, for any history of Normandy to be successful in the States,, they have to big up Easy Company (the only formation in the US army, apart from the Rangers) and criticise the British for not taking Care and therefore 'we had to fight through the bocage because of their incompetence'.
@@WW2TVAbsolutely and pretty irrelevant. Even without Caen, the British and Canadians kept most of the German armour in the east and allowed the Americans to penetrate in the west.
All in all this armchair dude has produced a pretty nice video. There are many videos on TH-cam on the Second World War, presented by people/narrators that simply don’t not have a clue. So “Cringe” that you probably will not even be bothered to comment. 😂 When watching those channel’s videos you’ll probably only going to let out long big sighs while wiping the occasional tear.😁 Thanks Paul, good work!
The graphics allow people with a minimum of knowledge to understand what happened. I would recommend that he 1) have others with expertise offer corrections, 2) improve his pronunciations, and 3) redo the deficiencies with the end result being an easily comprehendible, excellent review of the history that he can be proud of. I personally had an interest into the German reactions especially of Gen. E. Rommel's. Did the Pacific theatre operations share amphibious assault experiences with the Atlantic operations?
There was some co-operation between the PTO and ETO, but broadly speaking the amphibious planning was developed through Torch and Husky separate from the Pacific
I get that the content is “acceptable”. It’s those little details that if not gotten right in my opinion will grow and grow until they become “true” or “believed” by those who are not savvy to what ACTUALLY happened on this “Day of Days”. So crack on Woody! You and the others who know the real deal keep educating everyone!
Great video, just wish you would have paused the video that was playing while you were commenting. It was hard to watch and made it difficult to track all that was happening. Maybe it's just me? Keep up your outstanding video content!
In a reaction video, I can only really address what comes up and Armchair Historian focused (correctly in my opinion) on the destroyers and smaller vessels
I took a tally on the mistakes you brought up and marked it out of a 100. He got 80/100. Some comments were behind the narrative I couldn't pick up ,some I did. I tried to not mark repetitive mistakes. My marking could be 5 -10 worse but we will let it lie. ( whats that other false narrative of an apple dropped on Isaac Newton's head ?)
As usual Woody I really enjoyed your look at this, but I do think you were a little harsh on him for his pronunciation of certain words which many other English speakers would also have made errors on. As a fellow Englishman I do appreciate he did say Hampshire for instance correctly. Unlike many Americans who would have said Ham-shire instead of Hampshire. When I say many French words I also mispronounce them, not as badly as he does. But English and French are two different languages. English being a Germanic language and French a Romance language with very different ways of spelling, grammar etc. He did far better to be fair than you or I would if we were trying to pronounce words from the Gaelic languages. Also he did cover the Canadian contribution that some American and British historians have downplayed. Even we English pronounce words differently depending on where we are from eg I’m Black Country and say bAth but you are from the south east and say bath, with a softer sounding a. The debate around whether Caen was too ambitious an aim will continue. But in my opinion it was un achievable given the size of the city to try and take it on the first day given it is and was the major road, rail and population centre of that area of Normandy. Merci beaucoup mon ami et bonne chance au Les ‘tractor boys’ en 2023. Boing boing lol 😊
The thing is, lots of money goes into these films, and with a bit of work he could have made sure his pronunciations were solid. The PointER du Hoc and Colleyville were especially annoying
Fantastic animation. Good to critique, thankyou. Paul. l'm sure youve sussed this now, but if you're going to comment, more than a 'Yes', stop the subjects video. Please avoid talking over their narrative. 😁😁Ha ha, l can see Mags banging Paul on the head with a stale baguette regularly about his pronunciation nuances, "C'est l'hopital qui se moque de la charite'"
@@zachm2331 Griffin obviously. But in his defense it is hard to have as comprehensive a knowledge of the Normandy campaign as Paul has, especially at Griffin's young age.
I really like TAH but his historiography is lagging behind about 20 years. We're probably in the thirth era of WW2 history (post-war, post-ultra and post-Glantz is my own loosely held definition) and he seems stuck in the 2nd. A lot of effort goes into the great graphics and animations, and that's hard enough work as is but it always worries me that his superbly produced videos reinforce the old misperceptions.
Griffith Johnson's good at narrating and providing animations and stuff. It brings a new angle to pop history, but he's probably not one of those to read book after book about events, lol (though I think he goes a step above wikipedia at least)
I agree, Woody, his pronunciation gaffes were so distracting. If you're going to put that much work into a video, look them up...ask speakers of the language...SOMETHING. Sloppy work in that (and the detail) detracts from some pretty cool graphics.
I too dislike the word mistake about the British not achieving the capture of Caen on DDay, I think if there was a mistake it was on the side of the Germans choosing to move the bulk of their troops into Normandy to defend Caen under the fire of Naval Guns and Allied Airpower. After the Allies inevitable breakthrough in Normandy the only thing stopping them is their fuel tanks running low. One question on the MGs at Omaha Beach you mentioned the MG42s being "the really dangerous ones", I would think an older water-cooled MG like a Maxim style weapon would actually be worse because you wouldn't have to worry about changing barrels or firing in short bursts, would that be correct?
A lot of these "armchair historians" have collected a whole lot of info from TH-cam and put it together and make out they are a proper historian - whereas they are probably just a guy capable of making ayoutuve video. A real historian gives references from their sources or some quotes etc. But I will watch it with interest and Woodys commentary!
Ever heard of the last ever full battalion charge in Military History done by Sparrow Force West Timor wW2 and a part of Sparrow Force was battle of Britain vets 79AA - the charge was at Usua Ridge - get back to me if you want to find out about the unknown little said about battle
@@WW2TV 1200 Australians.and the contingent of Brits 79AA were left on West Timor without any Naval or Air Support the Japanese landed 20,000 naval marines and 800+ paratroopers at the end of the battle on 70 odd Japanese paratroopers were left - if you punch in Sol Henderson , you Australian and Sol Henderson George Lawson -on TH-cam you will get a picture of the ferocity of the battle .My father was in 2/1st Heavy Battery AIF there , Aussies and Brits only lost 130 whilst inflicting huge losses , after capitulation a mob of Commandos with Sparrow Force harassed the Japanese for another six months before being evacuated by submarine . I think it was a crime leaving those boys there without any Naval or Air support with the might of Japan bearing down on them , not withstanding they used the aerodrome there to bomb Darwin cheers mate regards CJ , South Oz
Great reaction video Woody! Those pronunciations are rather jarring. Sluggish armour? That's not accurate at all. Canadian Omaha?!? What the? Ah Canada coming last as always. The 1st Hussars details are not accurate. The commanding officer of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles said the 1st Hussars helped to lower the casualties on the beach and were vital to clearing the beach defences. The Carpiquet assessment is all wrong. Mistake is not even close to the right word. I think you invertedly hit one of my frustrations with TH-cam history. Videos with fancy animations get tons of views, which I know takes lots of work, but the history isn't the best. Seems more time is put into animations instead of doing proper research.
By the time the video got to Juno I was aware I had already interjected quite a lot, so I let most of the errors slide. To be honest I was grateful he covered the sector at all lol
Way to little attention to how the terrain influenced the fighting and objectives. Information on the German strength and positions rather poor. Showing KG Meyer as a 12th SS unit is really poor. (Confused by the name?)
To be fair mate, I think he made the decision not to talk about terrain in this video. I nearly jumped in and talked abut KG Meyer, but I let that slide
Yeah, I guess not talking much about the terrain was a deliberate choice, but it was so important and some of the terrain shown in the video is just too blank. Also, the airborne forces west of the Merderet deserved more attention, and that's also anotger place where terrain comes in.
Yes, it is interesting now I think about it that he mentioned the secondary mission of the 6th AB eliminating the Dive bridges, but didn't talk about the 507th and 508th beyond the Merderet forming the west flank
As always Paul absolutely great, just out of interest may I ask. At any point could D Day have gone wrong at any point ? Really excellent and a very candid detailed look and discussion, loved it. 👍😊😊👍
I'm not sure. I'm a Brit and if a noun begins with a vowel, I will use the 'thee' sounding the. E.g. The elephant stole my beer. With a vowel, the pronounced 'thee' merges with the start of the word and it is easier to say. It's like saying 'thee-yelephant'. If a word begins with a consonant, I use the normal 'thuh' sounding the. E.g. The dog ate my sandwich. That's what I teach my South American ESL students.
Yes. As an Australian , I lean to your usage. However, the "thee" pronunciation is creeping in, even with ABC newsreaders. It may be an American usage gaining ground, as inevitably happens, or an age-based affectation, a fashion.
Caun was the known key strategic city of the whole area to the allies BUT MORE SO TO THE GERMANS . THE KEY ROAD AND RAIL HUB WITH AN AIRPORT. GERMANY MADE IT A PRIORITY TO DEFEND. The invasion objective of Caun was a hopeful pipe dream as in any attack let alone , Seabourn invasion. This has only to imply failure to Canadian actions. Exceedingly wrongful. Caun makes Bastogne look like an after thought in importance. The whole invasion keyed on Caun ,and the Germans knew it the whole time.
About which point? The men in the gliders at Pegasus Bridge were categorically not paratroopers. All the DD tanks were not lost on Omaha. These are not "protests" they are errors. Plus as you will see, I did really like the animation, but pointing out historical errors is never a bad thing surely?
@@WW2TV The Armchair Historian has a cartoon level approach which I find engaging and hopefully attracts viewers who otherwise would not be interested in history. He has never let messy little facts get in the way of a broad stoke that entertains. It's a bit like complaining that Micky and Mini Mouse do not accurately reflect the courtship of M. musculus. ( I have enjoyed your videos-including this one , and being a Marine veteran I particularly was excited by the ones on Guadalcanal)
The only way of getting anything like an accurate figure is by defining the parameters accurately. How far out to sea is a death counted as Omaha? Do we classify the missing as missing on June 6th or 48 hours? Data tended to be recorded for 48 hours. If you make a stab at defining what "Omaha Beach" is in terms of timings and geography
What's my agenda? Apart from identifying historical errors of course. Plus, reaction videos are by definition also opinions. Other historians may disagree with some of my comments
Care to elaborate? Woody has lived in Normandy for years and is one of the top guides who has met and been friends with numerous veterans of different nationalities. He has worked with top authors such as James Holland and Peter Caddick Adams to name just two and advised tv documentaries and quality TH-cam channels such as the World War Two channel. Unlike some he doesn’t try to push one nation’s story more than another’s and is always respectful of the immense sacrifices made in Normandy.
@@WW2TV I think you did a very respectful and thorough breakdown of the things Armchair got right AND the things he got wrong...and you even admitted when a few of your corrections were more "nit-picky"...I really do not see any agenda in this reaction. I think you are very clear about your overall goal of looking at the history of D-Day through clear eyes, and to try and speak out when there are narratives and/or facts that are not true...or when a story about a paratrooper hanging from a church might be highly questionable.👍
Thanks for the detailed reaction, you added a lot of valuable commentary; I appreciate the corrections.
Very humble of u. I love how both of your descriptions tell the fuller story when combined. Great work to both of yous
i am so happy you depicted lcas on the omaha beach landing man they get overlooked
I REALLY appreciated Woody's distinction between "Paratroopers" and "Airborne Infantry". It is a mindblowing fact that while American Paratroopers were an all-volunteer force, the American glider infantry didn't volunteer or even get jump pay for the horrible risk that they were assigned as their duty. What a raw deal!
Thanks Bryan, and yes it's a big difference
Well done Woody; lots of information in the video for sure, but your perspectives and corrections were excellent.
Thank you kindly!
Hi Woody, my Dad was a glider pilot, 82nd airborne, D-Day. Was dropped behind enemy lines, landed the plane, both wings and the tail were torn off. The two paratroopers and copilot and my Father survived unhurt. The four of them joined other who landed close by, making a force of 210 men. They searched for German Patrols that day, breaking up a few. There luck changed when they were attacked on 3 sides by Germans. Leaving only my Father and two paratroopers. The two paratroopers were killed after one picked up an American hand grenade that was booby trap. My father hid for 6 days between a farmhouse and a hedge, located in St Mere Eglise, under sniper fire, no food and drank rain water from his helmet. Finally on the 6th day he convinced the women in the farmhouse to bring him some milk for 2000 francs and she was induced to bring an American Patrol to rescue him. He didn’t want to take up a hospital bed, he was just hungry, those other guys were injured. He made his way and boarded a Liberty Ship. His name was Second-Lieutenant Charles McCann. His story is in a book called Honour For All, by Allan A Mitchie. Also Newsweek, June 26, 1944, and various other stories. He was a wonderful Dad, lived to 90 years old. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoyed his story.
Thanks for sharing your father's story Joanie
Outstanding. Definitely adds some layers to an already well produced video. Hope to see more of these.
That's the plan!
Excellent commentary and very accurate and precise comments.
Thanks!
Great video. Best of both worlds with nice graphics of Armchair Historian and Woody’s nuanced commentary.
I was waiting for this! By far the best D-Day video by the Armchair Historian but I can't wait to see what fixes you have with this video.
Regarding Juno beach, by noon on June 7 the Regina Rifles had leapfrogged their position, basically doubling the amount of territory gained by occupying Bretteville, while the Royal Winnipeg Rifles took nearby Putot. This put the Nazis squarely on their back foot, a position they could never recover from. Though the 12 SS and elements of Panzer Lehr battered away at both Canadian positions, even the 12 SS commanders were forced to give an admiring nod to these two regiments who beat them back soundly. Juno was the important Allied armoured lynch pin but the Allies landed way too much armour and infantry for the Nazis to cope with and by June 10 the issue was not in doubt any longer. It would have required the massive movement of Nazi armour from Calais, something Hitler forbade and which would have been near impossible anyway. The die was cast.
Thanks for your excellent commentary Paul!
I would be remiss If I did not mention the vital support of the Canadian Scottish and Cameron Highlander regiments in helping to hold Putot. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles were dislodged briefly from Putot on June 8, 1944 but the Canadian Scottish and Cameron Highlanders plugged the gap and retook Putot from the 12 SS. Its control was never in doubt after that. Thank goodness for those tough Scotsmen!
Just stumbled upon this channel and I got to say, you are just down right awesome. I've never seen any channel on youtube or the internet that pays attention to such detail and explains it so thoroughly. I really appreciate the hard work you put into these videos and i hope for more awesome ones like this to come!
Welcome aboard, and thanks for the nice words
Reminds me of watching war movies with my pops. He would call everything out that was incorrect. 😅😅RIP Pops
Your knowledge on D Day is unparalleled, at least with any other channels or single books. The truth matters, and I appreciate your drive for accuracy.
I think the intended audience for his video was to give a broad overview. Your information definitely helped tell the story, but the omissions weren't lies or laziness by him (I'm assuming), but his video wasn't meant to tell every story. Some of the implications you heard weren't issues at all. He didn't give the details you did, but he rarely implied the things you took issue with.
Overall, so much of what I know comes from you and a handful of creators. I am grateful. In my personal estimation (this is probably me knit picking), you could have easily added your additional knowledge and made a complete presentation instead of being critical at all.
His intended audience was probably for people who don't know as much as you. It's great to add your nuanced understanding, but it didn't come across as creative; only critical.
Thank you for your channel and all you do. You are one of the best, and just as you are trying to, I am only trying to help.
Interesting and respectful perspective from Woody on an innovative presentation of D Day. Criticisms can be made, these can be applied to virtually every talk and book! The most important thing is learning so future videos are improved. All presentations, films, videos, books etc. can benefit from informed and judicious editing.
Well said!
A great and well-balanced review of the video. I look forward to more of these types of reviews
Over all, really enjoyed the original "bird's eye view" and your helping commentary, thank you, Woody and ACH.
It disturbs something in me when the dead casualties number has not added to it the wounded, lost as prisoners and missing in action. For example, I was raised to expect to see something on the order of "....There were 4,000 casualties, of which 1,000 were dead, 2500 wounded, 350 lost from having been taken prisoner, and 50 missing in action..." or a mix of the sort.
What I believe I just heard was an addition to this presentation of the invasion for someone like me who has spent a helluva a lot more time studying the Asia-Pacific theater than the ETO.
Point 1. He brings this video to our attention.
Point 2. 'Well done' is heard throughout the assessment.
Point 3. Overall this seems to be assessed at just short of top notch.
Point 4. I never heard of this channel in the first place, I'll check it out to see what I can learn and make my own overall judgement.
Good 'Reaction Video' although I normally steer clear of anything so titled. I liked Wood's take.
I agree about the pronunciation...I figured it would be something you would comment on...and I guessed at a bunch of the things that you said.
But as always when I watch your stuff, I learned a good amount of new things too. 👍
Great critique woody. Realistically the armchair historian is probably a group of people, who research, present and edit these videos. You cannot create a video of that quality alone! They're probably aimed at the huge American market, and I too thought the level of description of British and Canadian beaches was surprisingly fresh for an American presentation. I wish more people would cover the role and bravery of the parachute pathfinders!
Well said!
Not enough attention to the Royal Marines of 47 Cmd at Port-enBessin; A very important port captured with some unbelievable courage to take very heavily defended trench and casemates, with flakship auto cannons causing mayhem
Well, I was pleased he mentioned them at all to be honest, they normally get ignored. It would have been nice to elaborate on their achievements, but I can see why for brevity's sake he didn't
Caan should have been called a stretch goal. Going 12 kilometers in from an opposed landing and capturing a defended city was far beyond the technology of 80 years ago. After listening to your work on D-day hour by hour I found your critique appropriate.
Really good video. I enjoyed your insight. Anyone can make a video, but it doesn't mean it's accurate or true. One thing, mate, you can use the space bar to pause videos rather than using the cursor all the time.👍
Very informative and constructive video!! Re you being too "picky". Why not! No need to apologise!!! You owe it to the veterans that fought and died there.
Can you do a video on the lady be good the B-24 that went down in the desert, and all the crew were lost?
It's on my list for a future show
@@WW2TV Fantastic. Thanks!
Yes Woody, so many historians do not specify casualties properly. Killed, wounded, Missing (prisoners) and then the total.
They need to state what the figure are, and be consistent!
Exactly, consistency is key. Like with pronunciation, either use the French way, or Anglo, but stick with it. And with casualties, either compare KIA with KIA or casualties with casualties, and explain the criteria
50:30 why does he show the 12th SS Divisional symbol for “Kampfgruppe Meyer” when 12th SS didn’t reach the Caen front until June 7th? Did he just assume that it must have been a unit of 12th SS, because of its name and because 12th SS was later involved in fighting inland from Juno?
Yes probably
It is a nice touch that the landing craft are the British ones shown .Am I correct the majority were crewed by British and British Landing craft.
There were Coxswains from lots of Nations, British, Danish, American etc
Well, that episode came as a bit of a surprise.
Well done. An honest critique to a younger Historian.
I had the same reaction when I first watched AH's video: thought it was brilliant but annoyed at the odd line like 'failure'. Also the framing of the eastern landings after the American landing section is a prompt to 'if only the Brits' hadn't fxxxed up'.
If they have read PCA in advance they would have realised that there was no way a division could have taken Caen on D-day, but the persistence in raising the usual tropes made me think that, for any history of Normandy to be successful in the States,, they have to big up Easy Company (the only formation in the US army, apart from the Rangers) and criticise the British for not taking Care and therefore 'we had to fight through the bocage because of their incompetence'.
Interesting that AH cites Peter Caddick-Adams in the credits
Caan on th first day was a pipe dream.
Yep, pretty much. It was fine to set ambitious goals, but its inappropriate to use words like failure when discussing the fact they weren't reached
@@WW2TVAbsolutely and pretty irrelevant. Even without Caen, the British and Canadians kept most of the German armour in the east and allowed the Americans to penetrate in the west.
Maybe the comment about 'sluggish' DD tanks a reference to their speed before beaching - about 4 knots rather than the estimated 6 due to the weather?
Except he seems to be talking about them moving off the beach at this point
10 days late but it is nice to see the armchair wikipedia captain's video checked by someone who knows their stufg
This was superb
All in all this armchair dude has produced a pretty nice video.
There are many videos on TH-cam on the Second World War, presented by people/narrators that simply don’t not have a clue.
So “Cringe” that you probably will not even be bothered to comment. 😂
When watching those channel’s videos you’ll probably only going to let out long big sighs while wiping the occasional tear.😁
Thanks Paul, good work!
Well done!
Where do you get your caps from woody their awesome.
Oh various places, usually independent hat shops
The graphics allow people with a minimum of knowledge to understand what happened. I would recommend that he 1) have others with expertise offer corrections, 2) improve his pronunciations, and 3) redo the deficiencies with the end result being an easily comprehendible, excellent review of the history that he can be proud of. I personally had an interest into the German reactions especially of Gen. E. Rommel's. Did the Pacific theatre operations share amphibious assault experiences with the Atlantic operations?
There was some co-operation between the PTO and ETO, but broadly speaking the amphibious planning was developed through Torch and Husky separate from the Pacific
Great vid and corrections woody 👏🏻🪖
I get that the content is “acceptable”. It’s those little details that if not gotten right in my opinion will grow and grow until they become “true” or “believed” by those who are not savvy to what ACTUALLY happened on this “Day of Days”. So crack on Woody! You and the others who know the real deal keep educating everyone!
29:00 - At least Steel Division: Normandy 44, didn't continue that myth. You can deploy DD tanks in the Mission Boston campaign.
I thought Sainte-Marie-du-Mont was the first to be liberated. Or was I misinformed by my BoB tour guide.
Again it all depends on your definitions. Town or village? What's meant by liberation? There' are strong cases for Courseulles and Benouville too
@WW2TV and Ranville as the first village liberated?
War is chaos something is bound to go wrong.
Great video, just wish you would have paused the video that was playing while you were commenting. It was hard to watch and made it difficult to track all that was happening. Maybe it's just me? Keep up your outstanding video content!
So he's indeed an armchair historian 😅
Woody can you do more on the battleships contribution,not much is ever said
In a reaction video, I can only really address what comes up and Armchair Historian focused (correctly in my opinion) on the destroyers and smaller vessels
I am really happy that I am not the only one who gets frustrated with the mispronunciation of important historical sites.
I took a tally on the mistakes you brought up and marked it out of a 100. He got 80/100. Some comments were behind the narrative I couldn't pick up ,some I did. I tried to not mark repetitive mistakes. My marking could be 5 -10 worse but we will let it lie. ( whats that other false narrative of an apple dropped on Isaac Newton's head ?)
As usual Woody I really enjoyed your look at this, but I do think you were a little harsh on him for his pronunciation of certain words which many other English speakers would also have made errors on.
As a fellow Englishman I do appreciate he did say Hampshire for instance correctly. Unlike many Americans who would have said Ham-shire instead of Hampshire. When I say many French words I also mispronounce them, not as badly as he does. But English and French are two different languages. English being a Germanic language and French a Romance language with very different ways of spelling, grammar etc.
He did far better to be fair than you or I would if we were trying to pronounce words from the Gaelic languages.
Also he did cover the Canadian contribution that some American and British historians have downplayed.
Even we English pronounce words differently depending on where we are from eg I’m Black Country and say bAth but you are from the south east and say bath, with a softer sounding a.
The debate around whether Caen was too ambitious an aim will continue. But in my opinion it was un achievable given the size of the city to try and take it on the first day given it is and was the major road, rail and population centre of that area of Normandy.
Merci beaucoup mon ami et bonne chance au Les ‘tractor boys’ en 2023.
Boing boing lol 😊
The thing is, lots of money goes into these films, and with a bit of work he could have made sure his pronunciations were solid. The PointER du Hoc and Colleyville were especially annoying
Fantastic animation.
Good to critique, thankyou.
Paul. l'm sure youve sussed this now, but if you're going to comment, more than a 'Yes', stop the subjects video. Please avoid talking over their narrative. 😁😁Ha ha, l can see Mags banging Paul on the head with a stale baguette regularly about his pronunciation nuances, "C'est l'hopital qui se moque de la charite'"
Noted, I just felt it was getting a bit long so a couple I times I didn't stop if my comment was a simple one
Ive been less then impressed with this historians history.
Are you referring to Paul or Griffin?
@@zachm2331 Griffin obviously. But in his defense it is hard to have as comprehensive a knowledge of the Normandy campaign as Paul has, especially at Griffin's young age.
I really like TAH but his historiography is lagging behind about 20 years. We're probably in the thirth era of WW2 history (post-war, post-ultra and post-Glantz is my own loosely held definition) and he seems stuck in the 2nd.
A lot of effort goes into the great graphics and animations, and that's hard enough work as is but it always worries me that his superbly produced videos reinforce the old misperceptions.
Agreed, it's the old conventional narrative
I like your use of Post-Glantz. What a great description.
Griffith Johnson's good at narrating and providing animations and stuff. It brings a new angle to pop history, but he's probably not one of those to read book after book about events, lol (though I think he goes a step above wikipedia at least)
I agree, Woody, his pronunciation gaffes were so distracting. If you're going to put that much work into a video, look them up...ask speakers of the language...SOMETHING. Sloppy work in that (and the detail) detracts from some pretty cool graphics.
"Canadian Omaha" my ass
I too dislike the word mistake about the British not achieving the capture of Caen on DDay, I think if there was a mistake it was on the side of the Germans choosing to move the bulk of their troops into Normandy to defend Caen under the fire of Naval Guns and Allied Airpower. After the Allies inevitable breakthrough in Normandy the only thing stopping them is their fuel tanks running low. One question on the MGs at Omaha Beach you mentioned the MG42s being "the really dangerous ones", I would think an older water-cooled MG like a Maxim style weapon would actually be worse because you wouldn't have to worry about changing barrels or firing in short bursts, would that be correct?
i guess the Germans did not get the memo to give the airport to the Canadians.
The enemy (Germans) has a vote and gave opposition which would be overcome.
A lot of these "armchair historians" have collected a whole lot of info from TH-cam and put it together and make out they are a proper historian - whereas they are probably just a guy capable of making ayoutuve video.
A real historian gives references from their sources or some quotes etc.
But I will watch it with interest and Woodys commentary!
Ever heard of the last ever full battalion charge in Military History done by Sparrow Force West Timor wW2 and a part of Sparrow Force was battle of Britain vets 79AA - the charge was at Usua Ridge - get back to me if you want to find out about the unknown little said about battle
I've heard of it, but don't know any details
@@WW2TV 1200 Australians.and the contingent of Brits 79AA were left on West Timor without any Naval or Air Support the Japanese landed 20,000 naval marines and 800+ paratroopers at the end of the battle on 70 odd Japanese paratroopers were left - if you punch in Sol Henderson , you Australian and Sol Henderson George Lawson -on TH-cam you will get a picture of the ferocity of the battle .My father was in 2/1st Heavy Battery AIF there , Aussies and Brits only lost 130 whilst inflicting huge losses , after capitulation a mob of Commandos with Sparrow Force harassed the Japanese for another six months before being evacuated by submarine . I think it was a crime leaving those boys there without any Naval or Air support with the might of Japan bearing down on them , not withstanding they used the aerodrome there to bomb Darwin cheers mate regards CJ , South Oz
Great reaction video Woody! Those pronunciations are rather jarring.
Sluggish armour? That's not accurate at all.
Canadian Omaha?!? What the? Ah Canada coming last as always. The 1st Hussars details are not accurate. The commanding officer of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles said the 1st Hussars helped to lower the casualties on the beach and were vital to clearing the beach defences.
The Carpiquet assessment is all wrong. Mistake is not even close to the right word.
I think you invertedly hit one of my frustrations with TH-cam history. Videos with fancy animations get tons of views, which I know takes lots of work, but the history isn't the best. Seems more time is put into animations instead of doing proper research.
By the time the video got to Juno I was aware I had already interjected quite a lot, so I let most of the errors slide. To be honest I was grateful he covered the sector at all lol
@@WW2TV It's a sad state of affairs that we are grateful that the Canadian beach is covered. I guess my Normandy project is sorely needed.
@@OTDMilitaryHistory Bring it on Brad, bring it on!!! 👌😉
@@ToddSauve Oh I'll bring it.
The word WiderstandsnestEN does not exist. We are in 2023... why does "armchair historian" not check with at least 1 german native speaker.... Grüße
I did notice that too
Way to little attention to how the terrain influenced the fighting and objectives. Information on the German strength and positions rather poor. Showing KG Meyer as a 12th SS unit is really poor. (Confused by the name?)
To be fair mate, I think he made the decision not to talk about terrain in this video. I nearly jumped in and talked abut KG Meyer, but I let that slide
Yeah, I guess not talking much about the terrain was a deliberate choice, but it was so important and some of the terrain shown in the video is just too blank. Also, the airborne forces west of the Merderet deserved more attention, and that's also anotger place where terrain comes in.
Yes, it is interesting now I think about it that he mentioned the secondary mission of the 6th AB eliminating the Dive bridges, but didn't talk about the 507th and 508th beyond the Merderet forming the west flank
As always Paul absolutely great, just out of interest may I ask.
At any point could D Day have gone wrong at any point ?
Really excellent and a very candid detailed look and discussion, loved it.
👍😊😊👍
For DDay to fail, so many things have to go wrong I believe it would be agonist the laws of probability
FYI, I unsubscribed because I keep getting notifications even tho there is no new video..... cheers
Okay, sorry to see you go
Is it an American thing to say "thee" instead of "the" (thuh)
I'm not sure.
I'm a Brit and if a noun begins with a vowel, I will use the 'thee' sounding the.
E.g. The elephant stole my beer.
With a vowel, the pronounced 'thee' merges with the start of the word and it is easier to say.
It's like saying 'thee-yelephant'.
If a word begins with a consonant, I use the normal 'thuh' sounding the.
E.g. The dog ate my sandwich.
That's what I teach my South American ESL students.
Yes. As an Australian , I lean to your usage.
However, the "thee" pronunciation is creeping in, even with ABC newsreaders.
It may be an American usage gaining ground, as inevitably happens, or an age-based affectation, a fashion.
Caun was the known key strategic city of the whole area to the allies BUT MORE SO TO THE GERMANS . THE KEY ROAD AND RAIL HUB WITH AN AIRPORT. GERMANY MADE IT A PRIORITY TO DEFEND.
The invasion objective of Caun was a hopeful pipe dream as in any attack let alone , Seabourn invasion.
This has only to imply failure to Canadian actions. Exceedingly wrongful.
Caun makes Bastogne look like an after thought in importance. The whole invasion keyed on Caun ,and the Germans knew it the whole time.
Caen, but thanks for the comment
The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks
About which point? The men in the gliders at Pegasus Bridge were categorically not paratroopers. All the DD tanks were not lost on Omaha. These are not "protests" they are errors. Plus as you will see, I did really like the animation, but pointing out historical errors is never a bad thing surely?
@@WW2TV The Armchair Historian has a cartoon level approach which I find engaging and hopefully attracts viewers who otherwise would not be interested in history. He has never let messy little facts get in the way of a broad stoke that entertains. It's a bit like complaining that Micky and Mini Mouse do not accurately reflect the courtship of M. musculus. ( I have enjoyed your videos-including this one , and being a Marine veteran I particularly was excited by the ones on Guadalcanal)
I think that Omaha casualties were from 4500 to 5500 due to research. Definitely not "around" 4000.
The only way of getting anything like an accurate figure is by defining the parameters accurately. How far out to sea is a death counted as Omaha? Do we classify the missing as missing on June 6th or 48 hours? Data tended to be recorded for 48 hours. If you make a stab at defining what "Omaha Beach" is in terms of timings and geography
Howdy folks. Interesting look at video history rated good but not great. Do better guys. It’s hard but just give me the truth. Candycoat nothing.
400th like (: (:
I’ve watched this for awhile, but Woody has an agenda.
What's my agenda? Apart from identifying historical errors of course.
Plus, reaction videos are by definition also opinions. Other historians may disagree with some of my comments
Care to elaborate?
Woody has lived in Normandy for years and is one of the top guides who has met and been friends with numerous veterans of different nationalities. He has worked with top authors such as James Holland and Peter Caddick Adams to name just two and advised tv documentaries and quality TH-cam channels such as the World War Two channel. Unlike some he doesn’t try to push one nation’s story more than another’s and is always respectful of the immense sacrifices made in Normandy.
I've read this comment, but David has an agenda.
@@WW2TV I think you did a very respectful and thorough breakdown of the things Armchair got right AND the things he got wrong...and you even admitted when a few of your corrections were more "nit-picky"...I really do not see any agenda in this reaction. I think you are very clear about your overall goal of looking at the history of D-Day through clear eyes, and to try and speak out when there are narratives and/or facts that are not true...or when a story about a paratrooper hanging from a church might be highly questionable.👍
What? To steer inquisitive people to research deeper? Whats wrong with that?