Week 294 - Soviets Take Vienna and Königsberg - WW2 - April 13, 1945
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- čas přidán 12. 04. 2024
- The prizes of Vienna and Königsberg fall to the Soviets as they continue what seems an inexorable advance. In the West the Allies advance to the Elbe River, but there they are stopped by command. The big news in their national papers this week is the death of American President Franklin Roosevelt, which provokes rejoicing in Hitler's bunker. The Allied fighting dash for Rangoon continues in Burma, as does the American advance on Okinawa, although Japanese resistance is stiffening and they are beginning counterattacks.
Chapters
00:32 Recap
01:05 Operation Grapeshot
01:57 Roosevelt Dies
06:01 Soviet Attack Plans for Berlin
12:45 Stalin's Suspicions
14:31 The fall of Königsberg
17:02 The fall of Vienna
18:38 Japanese Resistance on Okinawa
20:34 The War in China
21:09 Burma and the Philippines
22:38 Summary
22:57 Conclusion
25:05 Memorial
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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Ian Sowden
Written by: Indy Neidell
Research by: Indy Neidell
Map animations by: Daniel Weiss
Map research by: Sietse Kenter
Editing and color grading by: Simon J. James
Artwork by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Simon J. James & Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by:
Ruffneck88
Mikołaj Uchman
Source literature list: bit.ly/SourcesWW2
Archive footage: Screenocean/Reuters - www.screenocean.com
Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
Breathe it in Deep - Hampus Naeselius
Byrr - Hampus Naeselius
Close to the Edge - Hampus Naeselius
Motions - Edgar Hopp
Try and Catch Us Now - David Celeste
Watchman - Yi Nantiro
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
This week's episode is dedicated by TimeGhost Brigadier Member, Randy Wormmeester, to his parents Grace and William who fought in the Dutch resistance. We're grateful to Randy for his unwavering dedication to the TimeGhost Army and are happy to have been able to do this for him.
If you would like to dedicate a video to someone, you can join us on Patreon at the Brigadier tier for one year or make a one-time contribution.
i unfortunately do not have the funds to become a member of the army, let alone get a episode dedicated...
but if i could i would dedicate one to my late uncle Willem Jonkman.
he smuggled guns and messages for the resistance, making good use of the fact that he was a short guy, they thought he was just a kid in his short pants and with his babyface. he never took credit for it...
Not to be a sceptic or anything but so many Dutch people claim their grandparents were in the resistance in WW2. Frankly, it's hard to believe all those stories are true as many more of my countrymen served the Nazis than actively resisted them. Also, the Dutch resistance was small, poorly organised and largely infiltrated by the Germans. As brave as some individual resistance fighters were, their actions likely caused more harm than good. Our country's heroic resistance deeds are blown way out of proportion and our involvement with the Nazi regime largely downplayed.
@@lucas82 True. My mother-in-law always swore that her family hid - can't remember if it was a resistance fighter, Allied pilot, or Jewish guy in their attic for some time. Nobody else in the family remembers it at all.
Another great example of immigrants being the backbone of our country. Thank you!
What a wonderful story about mr Wormmeester. Thank you for recounting
Imagine. Hitler's birthday is only a week away and the red army is already eager to congratulate him and see him in Berlin.
It's going to be a blast!
litteraly! @@patrickstephenson1264
soviets preparing a special painting for the austrian painter
Steiner will make sure the Soviets cannot deliver their birthday present.
@@zafinet1169 don't worry. The red army will send part of the present in advance with the help of artillery. They will make in time. Artillery will always be in time.
The reality of how bad a position the Germans were in really struck home when map panned to the right and showed how close the Soviets and Western forces were.
It is amazing, how fast the Wehrmacht crumbled since the Normandy invasion last year. Then they still held an area from the Atlantic coast into the Soviet Union. But in an accelerating way the Wehrmacht disintegrated since fall 1944 and the Allies to East and to the West could make huge progress towards and then especially into Germany. It is only a few weeks ago, that they crossed the Rhine river and look how much they have taken since then.
In comparison the Italian front has been pretty stable for the past months, though I suspect it will crumble soon as well.
@@stoffls Sparty mentioned in the war against humanity episodes. The main reason why after recovering in the fall the Wehrmacht has collapsed so rapidly since late February, has been the collapse of Germany's industry following the Soviets taking Silesia and the allied bombing of the rivers also rendering the way out of the Ruhr's coal impossible.
@@stoffls Actually its the opposite. Its a very surreal thing that the germanmilitary didnt compleatly collapse in summer 1944. Most people only think of D-Day but Operation bagration in the East compleatly broke the german military. Within 3 months Germany suffered loses equal to about 2.5 Stalingrads...In the east 1 army group was wiped out and one was encircled in Kurland, in the West one army group was routing to the german border.
Pretty much only Italy wasnt a compleat desaster for the german military in 1944.
Sadly I dont have an english verison of it but a big german historian who researched on german military integrity basically said that the german army was able to keep moral up until summer 1944 because it was able to keep the core groups of soldiers and units together (germany recruited locally into local divisions to increase cohesion) but after summer 1944 this compleatly broke down. New german units were raised with troops from all over the place and were basically only held together by germanys lower officer corps until the end of the war. This however had massive negative effects for german unit cohesian and the efficency of german divisions broke down massively. While on paper it still was a division, in actual combat power it was maybe a brigade.
Also the only real reason the germans were able to survive and somewhat recover from the 1944 catastrophe was the simple fact that both the soviets and the americans literally ran out of fuel and had to wait to rebuild their supply lines. Also both the soviets and the western allies focused in late 1944 on "side objectives" instead of heading straight into the middle of germany (market garden in the west, Romania/Bulgaria/Hungary in the east). Not saying they werent important (Romania was a crippling blow to germany) but it slowed down the main assault directly at Germany itself by months.
Additionally the same thing that happened in 1918 to the german army happened here again. If most of your units are only able to do static defense (dig in and hold) then your entire frontline can collapse if it is breached in a single place as there is no way to stop the enemy from breaking through without mobile reserve forces to plug the gap. Bya 1945 germany didnt have any real mobile reserve forces anymore. Even in the small instances were german armored divisions mamaged to stop an enemy breakthrough at one point, the front would be broken at anther point. The germans didnt have enough left to fill the gaps and after that its a compleat route until the next natural defense like the rhine where the germans can again dig in their static divisions. In the east that task was done primarily by the major cities with german populations. It is a lot harder to fully destroy a weak german division in city combat then as it would be in the open field.
Add to that the compleat collapse of the german industry in februar of 1945 primarily do to a) the allies finally stopping poointless terror bombings for a minute and bombing the german rail infrastructure (especially destroying locomotives) and b) Germany losing silesia, where they had previously moved a lot of industry to do to allied bombings. Inaddition to that the obvious daily increase of fuel shortage did the rest.
From the day germany lost the romanian oil fields you could literalyl calculate how long germany would be able to continue fighting do to daily fuel demand vs. storage/remaining production.
In summary, the desaster in Belarus in 1944 broke the german militarys back and they were never able to even remotely recover from it.
And "painted map" is very deceptive of what is actually going on in a war. Again, WW1 has the best example with the collapse of the russian military in 1917/1918 where it desintegrated to a point that german troops could literally take the train from town to town to advance to the east. Operation "Faustschlag", the last offensive on the eastern front in WW1 only took 11 days (bolchewiks refused to sign treaty germany wanted them to sign so germany restarted hostility) to ocucpy pretty much all of the modern baltic states, belarus and ukraine, even reaching Rostov. The wikipedia atricle on it has a nice map of the 11 days advance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Faustschlag
Once an army is defeated or routed it is easy to quickly advance hundreds of kilometers. Same thing that happened after the allies crossed the rhine, it was the last defense line where the german army could dig in an reestablish a static defense. This is why the allied bridgehead at Remagen was such a debacle for the germans.
yeah, I had to doublecheck where Magdeburg was, and it was shocking to realize they went from getting stuck before the Rhine till basically in the Berlin area in mere weeks. There was just nobody left to intercept breakthroughs.
@@noobster4779 nice.
In a way, Stalin is right.
By this point, the Germans seem to want to surrender to the Western Allies rather than the Soviets.
The reality of total war in the East is hitting home. Surrender to the Soviets means a much worse peace than surrender to the Americans.
Stalin is astonished that the Allies would not take advantage of this situation...as he might have.
Those who are not trustworthy cannot fathom anyone else could be trustworthy. Russians and Communists can NEVER be trusted - and still can't to this day.
Halting in the west was a no brainer for the Americans and British. Why fight an urban battle in Berlin and lose all of those men if you know the Soviets want to and will do so. Among other reasons, we wanted to save forces for what at that time seemed like an inevitable invasion of Japan. And Germans wanting the western forces to take as much as possible was equally a no brainer. They knew the Russians were going to be nasty.
As a Dutch saying goes, as is the innkeeper is his trust in his guests. Stalin betrayed a lot of people, so in turn he distrusts everyone and expects treachery at every turn.
Surrendering to the soviets es the worst followed by any resistance groups followed by Greg French then by the Anglo-Americans
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623it is the same thing with drug peddlers. This is not to weigh in on drug use, my point is drug peddlers because in their trade there is no one to be trusted they bring the same mentality to the rest of the population.
Never forget that Stalin helped start WW2 by attacking Poland as well.
This week the allies took the Dutch region I grew up in during my childhood (and still live). My granddad lived in a village that was going to be shelled with artillery, but the German soldiers had already left. A citizen went to the Canadians with a white flag, in the middle of the night, to tell them that there were no German soldiers anymore. It saved the whole village from some pretty horrible violence.
My granddad (17/18 back then) wanted to put up a flag on top of the Church the next day, but the Germans were not that far gone and fired towards his village. He and his friends dropped the flag while trying to put it up and raced back down the church.
The City of Deventer is near where I live. When that city was liberated, some resistance fighters wanted to take a bridge for the allies in the night. They were discovered and executed about 30 minutes before the allies liberated the city. There was a German soldier who refused to take part in the executions. He himself was then shot by his commanding officer.
I was born in the Vienna Region and I’ve seen Footages of the Allied- occupied Germany and Austria. It’s weird seeing my people living like this, as Germans, Austrians, British, Russians/Soviets have always been different people. On the other Hand I’m Bulgarian and Bulgaria had good Luck having always been close with Russians so Bulgaria didn’t suffer as much as Germany and Austria. I also have Great Grandfathers from both countries.
My Austrian Great Grandfather died in the Eastern Front, in Siberia. My Bulgarian one supported the Bulgarian Partisans, who overthrew the Pro- German Government.
"They were discovered and executed about 30 minutes before the allies liberated the city. There was a German soldier who refused to take part in the executions. He himself was then shot by his commanding officer." I read about that. They were caught as they let a german guard go, who promised not to reveal them but did anyway.
One notable person who is exectued on April 9th is Wilhelm Canaris. I think its worth remembering someone who was opposing Hitler on regular basis during the war and helped keeping Spain out of the war and saved Jews from Nazi persecution.
...you mean the person who had the greatest part in dismantling the Abwehr, literally the German MI6? Can't believe this wasn't mentioned
My dad served as bombardier on a B-29 over Japan. He knew that Japanese civilians were dying by the tens of thousands 30,000 feet below. He got married in 1950 to my mom and immediately fathered two boys, thus avoiding military reinstatement to Korea. He took off in 1955. I was two. He would show up every few years to take me and my brother to cool places in L.A. He was a brilliant man, smooth dancer, superb singer, and very alcoholic. His time in the lower cockpit broke him. I saw his sad face in 1972 and I heard he died in 1996. My mother would freak when I sang and she saw Jimmy in me. I got sober in 1982.
My grandfather took the aftermath photos of the atomic bombs. Pretty much lived the same life as your father died when he was 59 years old. You have my sympathy and I feel sorry for all the young men who were forced to do what they did in defense of our nation.😢
The father of a minister in my church landed on Omaha beach and fought all the way to the end of WW2 in Europe. When the Korean War came along (1950-53) the US government tried to pressure him back into service. He told them "You can put me in jail but I'm not going back to war for anyone!" And he didn't. The government gave up. He also had at least one child and it might have been dicey for the feds if they took him to court. So they didn't. 👌💖
Glad for you that the casualties slowed down with you getting sober. Honor those who served. Remember all who suffered
Uncle was 2nd Marines, did the Pacific tour with them, he never had a good word to say about the Japanese, ripped him apart until the end.
@@c1ph3rpunk My ex wife's uncle Bob was with the 27th Infantry on Saipan and he told me they just never, ever took Japanese prisoners. There were so many episodes of surrendered Japanese pooping out a grenade and killing several US soldiers that immediately executing Japanese prisoners became the unwritten rule of thumb. There were about 28,000 Japanese soldiers on Saipan and only about 1800 survived, some civilians and some Korean.
Roosevelt was the youngest of the Big Three leaders, yet he looked the oldest.
Churchill was the oldest of the 3, yet he looked the youngest
Churchill demonstrated the preservative effects of alcohol.
(Actually he did nearly die of pneumonia at one point and required frequent medical attention and a valet who was also something of a nursemaid.)
Tbf Roosevelt had Polio
@@deeznoots6241actually it was very likely that he had Guillain-Barre syndrome, and not polio.
@@AC-ym1ef either way the point is that FDR might have been the youngest of the big three but he was certainly the least healthy
It's crazy to think Hitler is going to be dead in just over 2 weeks.
To Indy, Spartacus, Astrid, and the rest of the people whose names I don't know... do you realize that there has never been an event in human history covered as much as WW2, and that you just covered it more detail BY FAR than anyone ever has done before? You guys are truly amazing!
Dude spoilers
@@chanhjohnnguyen1867 wait til you find out who kills him
@@chanhjohnnguyen1867 Don't mind him, he's just joking. Of course Steiner will turn this whole thing around. He was just patiently waiting for FDR to die before making his move.
@@hebl47Erich Bachmann will turn this around. He will free prisoners and steal tanks.
Thanks so much! Your words really mean a lot to us here at TimeGhost. Hope to see you in our next project too!
Now that mid-April, 1945 is upon us I want to share this.
I was a 8th grade middle school student in north Berkeley in the early 1960s. The teacher of my civics class that year had been wounded late in WWII. My teacher was one of several I vividly remember from that time. He was a very strong personality with many peculiar traits. He had a physical presence that exuded toughness. He was clearly in charge of our class. No lack of attention or adolescent misbehavior was allowed. He spoke articulately with a European accent I could not place. He had very strong opinions about governments that he expected us to understand. He would not allow students to approach him closely because he thought we would give him our diseases. I noticed that his hand had missing fingers from some injury. He was a terrifying teacher for many of us.
I learned later that he grew up in what was then Yugoslavia. He moved to New York City to live with relatives as a teenager probably to escape WWII. Reaching the age of 18, he was enlisted in the US army in 1944. In mid April 1945, in northern Italy, he was shot and wounded by a German sniper.
After recovering from these wounds he made use of the GI bill to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. I heard that after graduation from college he testified before congress as an expert on Bosnia Herzegovina. I also heard that he had some interaction with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) because they suspected him of being a pre-mature antifascist from his time in Yugoslavia.
He was clearly a brilliant man. He was able to graduate from an Ivy League College after emigrating to USA. Yet, he ended up teaching 8th grade civics.
Recollecting this man, I have to think that there were people all around us at that time who were living with PTSD of one kind or another. These included former soldiers, holocaust survivors, sailors of the merchant marine, displaced refugees and former residents of internment camps in the USA. For better or for worse, these were many of the adults with whom we young baby boomers interacted.
We had a teacher in history in 8th and 9th grade in Sweden back in the 60’s. We loved him because he was a BIG man, tall and muscular and talking with a loud voice with a strong accent and when we got too excited the called out: “SILENCIUM PUBLICUM!!” (Shut the F-- up!).
He was from Lithuania but I don’t think he had been into the war but often referred to his father who, when the Soviets approached “took his rifle and ran into the woods …”.
Like most people from the Baltics he hated the Russians.
“Premature anti fascist “ is a terrifying phrase.
You do understand that the Baby Boomers were raised by a generation that was mostly all suffering from acute PTSD. Our parents were recovering as they tried to raise us.
I had a science teacher in fifth grade who, when breaking up fights, would turn to the bully and erupt, turning purple as he worked his way to the climax: "That is the sort of behavior that leads to people like ADOLF HITLER!!!" These episodes always freaked everyone out. As Top Science Nerd he trusted me to clean out his cabinet on the last day of school. Among the items I boxed up for him? A well worn road map of Germany, 1940, with Berlin denoted by a swastika. I never mentioned it to anyone else.
fucking hell did the huac board actually use “premature antifascist” as a bad thing?! And the same people have the gall to laugh at Soviet hypocrisy of cosying up with the Germans.
My great grandfather was one of the soldiers that took Konigsberg, he was wounded there and stayed in the hospital when he heard that the war was over. It was not really over because some Germans continued fighting and later he was sent to Far East to fight the Japanese Kwantung Army. He returned home only in 1946. Never talked about the war, only with the veterans and they always had the same toast: "Чтобы не было войны" (let there be no war").
He died in 1996 had many Ukrainian comrades, and I am happy that he wouldn't know that the Russians and Ukrainians killing each other today. Let there be no war!
It is a good thing though because now the Ukrainian people can have vengeance against Russians for the Holodomor/Голодомор! and all the other horrible things Russians have done to them over the past 500 years.
He lived till 1996. It is weird to imagine that this man who fought in ww2 lived to see the fall of the soviet union.
It is a good thing though because now the Ukrainian people can have vengeance against Russians for the Holodomor/Голодомор! and all the other horrible things Russians have done to them over the past 500 years.
It is a good thing though because now the Ukrainian people can have payback against Russians for the Holodomor/Голодомор! and all the other horrible things Russians have done to them over the past 500 years.
@@RK-cj4ockind of sad, he fought for a dream that died before he did
A sidenote this week on April 7 1945 is that, as a last ditch operation, the pilots of 183 Fw 190 and Bf-109K fighter aircraft from the so-called Sonderkommando Elbe (set up by the fanatical Oberst Otto Köhnke) will fly to the strains of martial music played over the radio and be ordered to deliberately ram American B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. How many actually did so remained a mystery but 137 of the German aircraft were lost, along with the loss of 70 pilots killed. Only eight US heavy bombers were brought down.
You have been writing this comments, for many years, and I would like to ask where you get all your Informationen from?
@@thanos_6.0 Usually from World War Two Database (ww2db) and Wikipedia, with some cross referencing checks where possible. Sometimes also from other sources such as biographies and books as well.
@@gunman47 Thanks. Always love reading your comments
I feel sad knowing this will end soon. will you call it there or continue to korea?
@@pnutz_2 I’m not sure if I may continue this for the upcoming Korean War as my commitments and time have been increasing over the years. Also I may need to see if it is easier to source information like this for the smaller scale Korean War too, fingers crossed!
Maybe things can turn around for the Germans. 2.5 million strategically placed banana peels...
Now, there's a cunning plan.
@@keithscott1957 Operation Volksbananasturm
They'll never see it coming.
@@dskywalkerw The trombones must be timed precisely as to not compromise operational secrecy.
'Yes! We Have No Bananas!' *Sings*
I saw Indy's video on FDR's death yesterday and was particularly moved by Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki's eulogy for his enemy and his profound condolences to the American people for FDR's passing. It seems the prime minster realized the war would end with America's victory and was signaling Americans that Japan would accept that outcome. Alas, the Japanese militarists dominated the government too much to allow peace on any terms short of unconditional surrender after the atomic bombings. But Prime Minister Suzuki's kind remarks about Roosevelt boded well for an amicable peace after Japan surrendered.
This morning I was thinking about the Suzuki quote.
Yeah I was surprised by that too
Jup, Japan’s political situation during the war was a strange one for most of us.
@@Turnipstalk”So long as you’re loyal to the eMperOr” a great counterpart to “Do things that are supposed to be distasteful to NSDAP standards and practices but it’s ok because you’re LoYal to Shitler”.
@@Turnipstalk Was the modern political commentary really needed? I know exactly who you're referring to but what you said could be applied to hundreds upon hundreds of politicians. Only difference is they only get punished if the political elite decide they should be.
Unintentionally, the Red Air Force created an Eulerian path across the Koeningsburg bridges. By destroying two of them.
"Ah, Hitler! The more I learn about that guy, the more I don't care for him" ~ Norm Mcdonald.
😂
Here's an interesting thing that happened on the 12th of April: Polish soldiers of the 1st Armored Division under the command of Gen. Stanisław Maczek liberated 1721 female participants of the Warsaw Uprising imprisoned by Germans in Stalag VI C Oberlangen.
This was quite a joyous suprise for both sides.
Wow, really? I always assumed none survived. That's good to hear.
@@robertmiller9735 The Warsaw surrender negotiations resulted in the surviving insurgents being granted POW status. Some German commanders were beginning to be worried about war crimes trials.
Funny how Stalin's paranoia is inflamed by Hitler's insane defense orders.
Hitler gave the same orders to soldiers and civilians fighting against the western allies and the soviets. Difference was that the willingness to actually fight and resist the soviets to the end was significantly higher among germans then to fight the americans or british in the west.
@@noobster4779 German soldiers were told that the Western Allies planned to hand over a proportion of any prisoners they took to the Red Army. This was designed to stop German troops from seeing the Western Allies as some sort of easy option.
SPOILER
My understanding is that at war's end, some German POWs in Western hands were in fact handed over to the Soviets. Certainly "Vlasovites" and such were handed over.
@@stevekaczynski3793with all due respect
I wouldn’t say “some”
From what I have read, operation ‘keelhaul’ as it was called saw the transfer of nearly 2 million German POW to Eastern Europe
Edit: I just read some more articles that claim about 5 million anti-communists from all across Eastern Europe where send to the Soviet Union for persecution and about 2 million where Germans and the rest where fascists from Eastern Europe captured form SS division that fought the western allies.
@@tsardean7438 By and large Ukrainians from the 14th SS Galician Division were not handed over - they claimed to be Polish subjects and so not liable to be returned to the USSR.
People who think Patton was some kind of anti-Soviet saviour overlook the fact that his Third Army troops handed over followers of Vlasov who surrendered to them to the Red Army, though here and there with some exceptions. Patton hated Russians but probably did not hate Russians less who turned their coats.
My use of "some" referred to actual Germans - in reality some were indeed handed to the Red Army at war'se end, partly because some Western commanders and occupation officials thought they were holding too many POWs.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Right, some even survived to get a standing ovation in the Canadian parliament...
Would like to mention my small town in the netherlands. Two canadian scouts were killed when their greyhound scout car was hit by a panzerfaust, though soon the canadians were here in full force, and replied with a heavy mortar stonk, i do not know if and if so how many germans died. The most strategic thing here was the bridge that was half blown and still could support tanks as heavy as churchills (i saw in a couple of pictures). Small and insignificant as my town is, we still feel we owe those canadian troops that the town flag is adorend with a red bordered shield with on the right the logo of the dutch rememberance comittee and on the left the maple leaf.
Though i get why, i'm still slightly sad to see so little mention of these canadian efforts throughout the netherlands. This is my only gripe with this exellent show though. Keep up the good work folks.
I remember the radio announcing the death of FDR. It was in the afternoon. I was playing with my pet turtle on the living room floor, waiting for my parents to come home from work.
I'm only 29 and both my parents and grandparents had children relatively young, so none of them remember it. Only my grandfathers were alive to hear it and only one of them would have been old enough to remember (would have been 8 years old), and he died 20 years ago; the other grandfather would have only been 2 or 3 and would not have remembered.
The closest would be JFK's assassination, though I never got the chance to ask my grandfathers about what they were doing when that happened (and they'd have both been adults too). My maternal grandfather did say he registered to vote as a Democrat in 1960 specifically to vote for JFK. I did have a coworker a few years ago who's in his late 60s now and remembers JFK's assassination quite clearly, he was in 4th or 5th grade. He remembered his parents being very upset (both were big Kennedy supporters), but he was a kid and didn't really understand what was happening aside from the fact that the president being killed is a really big deal. I'd have to ask him again but I think he said something about school either releasing for the day or pulling the kids into an assembly? Not sure.
@@browncoat697 - That sounds correct. I was eight at the time.
My dad told me that he heard that FDR died, while on a troop transport from Washington to Leyte. While on the same 29 days at sea he also heard that Germany surrendered.
Some additional detail: "Ike" just didn't decide to give Berlin to the the Soviets, there were practical considerations as well. Consultations with FDR over the direction of the finish fight in Germany were precluded by his death. Since there was no effective civilian oversight at this moment, Marshall and Eisenhower were guided by the rather opaque notions set down in the Tehran Conference. The Elbe was the dividing line between the western and Soviet occupation zones, consequently, all land occupied by the western armies to the east would have to be released to the Soviets. Moreover, Eisenhower was already being dunned by requests to release divisions diverted to Europe from the Pacific after the Battle of the Bulge. On top of that, many units active in the ETO were already earmarked for transfer to the Pacific after VE day. The time for their departure was rapidly approaching. JCS estimates of casualties for OLYMPIC were already high enough that casualties from a finish fight in Berlin could not be absorbed by these units and made good before they were embarked for Pacific operations. In 1945 we were beginning to scrape the bottom of the manpower barrel. Churchill was, of course, furious over the halt. The 2nd Armored spearheads were only 2 or 3 days march from western Berlin. However, there were bigger fish to fry.
The barrel-bottom-scraping began long before now. As far back as late 1943 they were cancelling most of the Army Specialized Training Program and moving those soldiers into infantry positions because of the shortage of front-line replacements. They'd already recruited as many people as they could without affecting American industrial and agricultural production levels, had capped the Army at 100 divisions and were wondering how they were going to cope with all of those casualties from the invasion of Japan. Essentially the only manpower they had left to draw on was people graduating from school. So yeah, definitely, this would have been a major consideration for the war department when deciding whether or not to halt at the Elbe.
It was easy for Churchill to be furious, but any assault on Berlin was always going to an American affair, as the British were advancing along the German coast to the North and the Canadians into the Netherlands. Naturally Monty had hoped that the US 9th Army had remained to be under his control for this assault on Berlin, so the glory could have been his. But the decision to not take Berlin and instead save troops for an invasion of Japan was sound. All the more so since again this would have been an American affair in which the British would play only a minor supporting role. So any losses taking Berlin would not factor in future British plans like taking Malaya.
It wasnt his to give.
@Raskolnikov70 0I think you miss the point of the effect that the accelerated casualty rates had beginning in mid-1944. Sure, the delayed induction programs were canceled in 1943, but that was to accelerate the filling out of units headed to England - that hadn't been in combat - more the limits of mobilization. The Army knew that the loss rate would ramp up in 1944, but the stiffening Japanese resistance was unexpected - especially after the Marianas, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima.
Not only that, at the Yalta Conference, February 4th to 11th, 1945, heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union had already decided how Germany, and Berlin, would be divided after the Germans was conquered. Why get Americans killed capturing Berlin, when that city was going to be divided into 4 zones of occupation, and it would be well inside of the Soviet occupied part of Germany after the war anyway. In fact, once the war was over, the Western Allies had to pull back 90 miles to the West of their positions on the Elbe, because they were in the Soviet occupation zone, that had been decided on 3 months earlier.
As the war nears its end, the intensity of these episodes grows. That ending part, with a conversation between Albert and Hitler. The absolute madness in this man's mind, to to speak those words, to absolutely believe that none of his people's lives left alive are worth it. "It is victory or total annihilation".
Unfortunately, probably due to extreme length of this weeks video, there is no mention of the happenings in Yugoslavia, where on April 12th finally, after 6 months of stalemate, the strong Axis positions on the Syrmian front on the Danube between Sava and Drava rivers was broken, and units of the Yugoslav Army, former Tito's partisans, started pouring into the plains beyond, going relentlessly west.
They coordinated with the other partisan groups in the occupied parts, so these also started offensive operations cutting off German and quisling retreat paths, opened many towns and cities and roads, and led to a month long race towards Austria and Italy, where on May 2nd several divisions of the 4th Yugoslav Army met with the 2nd New Zealand division that started Grapeshot in this episode too, and were very near of clashing between them due to the prize of Trieste.
I do hope that push shall be mentioned in the main channel, not only in the resistance one, due to the partisans actually being a real army by this point, fighting not guerilla but front like style, and also were fully recognized Allied belligerents since '43.
I really should look more into the Yugoslavian Campaigns. It sounds Fantastic!
One of my uncles was in the 2nd Division and took part in the disarming and expulsion of Yugoslav soldiers in Trieste. He didn't understand it and didn't like doing it, but soldiers generally follow orders. He died last year, a couple of months before he would have turned 100.
@@muzza881Which faction being expelled, the communists?
@@davidw.2791 The partisans who had liberated Trieste from the Nazis. Due to language difficulties, my uncle couldn't have a political discussion with them.
It's somewhat humorous how Stalin can't understand why the Germans fight the Soviets to the death, but eagerly surrender to Western troops.
Communists aren't known for their skills at self-reflection and questioning their assumptions.
@@Raskolnikov70 Austrian and German civilians fled the Czarist army in WW 1. It was Russians they feared, regardless of ideology.
@@juniatapark54 And they knew retribution was coming for the German atrocities in the USSR.
@@juniatapark54 Franz Kafka took part in relief efforts on behalf of (mostly Jewish) civilians who fled Galicia in 1914 and who in some cases ended up in Prague. West Ukrainians were much less prone to flee and Austro-Hungarian troops sometimes hanged them for supposed collaboration with the Russians.
Guess it’s his ego, like Hitler. Call them psychopaths or paranoics or whatever, but I guess these people saw it all from their own ideas, horizons and beliefs, much like the former “president” of USA, regarded the world and other countries from his rather egocentric views.
After almost 6 years we're finally heading towards the end of this series. GREAT work Indy and others!
Thank you for watching!
No more Monopoly! :) With a hearty hello to Grace, and my thoughts for William!
97 though, tough old lady.
The hunger of the end war winters is something that my Dutch grandmother remembers quite well. She would emigrate with her parents to South Africa in 1952.
My father, USN WWII, took a trip to Europe in the early 1990s. As he said, it would be nice to visit there when no one was going to be shooting at him.
He spend time in Hamburg, as it was a major port. He had several good conversations with men at the maritime hall.
After this he went to the Hamburg History Museum. As it turned out, the museum was having a special exhibit on "Hamburg During WWII". He was interested in many of the exhibits, but the last one really struck him. There was a large room. In the room there were tables. On each table were four photograph albums. Each album had pictures, four to a page, of people from Hamburg who ended up on the Eastern Front. There were signs all around -- Do You Have Any Information About What Happened To These Men?
These men, just from Hamburg, who were listed as MIA or "probably POW", but there was no official word about their fate.
My father just shook his head in misery. "You poor, stupid b*****ds. You should have seen this coming."
The German army's record of its losses were very sketchy. And many who died but whose deaths were not confirmed were deliberately registered as MIA or POW to keep the official KIA counts low. This led to a myth in Germany after the war that many German soldiers had died in Soviet captivity, or were still in captivity. But when the Soviet archives opened after the fall of the USSR no evidence of more German soldiers captured was ever found. Many might still turn up, in unmarked graves somewhere in Eastern Europe. Or never be found at all as all their remains get obliterated in the current fighting in the Ukraine.
It always amazes me how the Germans thought that they could take on the world.
@@michaelroark2019 Wisely, others were more restrained. The people who think it would have been good to let Patton go to war and drive on Moscow did not win the argument at the time.
This weeks episode really hit hard, love the ending with the memorial for the family, it is getting increasingly longer, can’t even cover the whole week in one episode anymore for weeks now but the war is nearing its end
You guys have been the greatest source of historical knowledge I ever had
I can’t believe I have been here for years at this point
A gigantic thank you to Indy, Astrid, Sparty and everyone else working at timeghost
And a gigantic salute to the timeghost army for making it all possible and accessible for free at a moments notice
It may not mean much to most people but you are the reason me and tons of others both old and young (such as myself) got to really learn history in an easy way without skipping any part of it for ‚saving time‘ during school lessons
Thank you all for giving me and everyone here this opportunity and source of knowledge, I’ll make sure that none of this will be forgotten in my lifetime
And a very heartfelt thank you to Indy specifically, you were the reason I discovered your work at all and I can’t thank you enough for working on this and the upcoming Korea war, I’ll always follow you guys, you strangely enough feel like a family that I may not know but still feel that I am part of
See you guys next week, Never Forget
I'm in New York City this 12th of April. Thank you Franklin. Your dedication to the Republic inspired my poor family who lived on the 800 block of Franklin in El Paso, Texas to believe in the American ideal of liberty with freedom which so much is now shared by so many alike. JA
Thank you for the sincerity of your thought. My own sister was born the 10th of April. Our father's great grandfather was affected by the Seven Weeks War of 1866, as Emil"s mother was Jewish. In November, I, too, will be 63.
😮
On the Tenth of april my hometown of Emmen in the Netherlands was liberated by the Polish 1st armored division. This would be the last time my great grandfather would ever step in german territory ever again. During the invasion of the Netherlands he was stationed in Ter Apel close to his family. When the germans took over he hid so he wouldn`t get captured as a P.O.W. however his nephew a fellow soldier told the Germans where he hid "so he didn`t have to go alone". Both were taken to a pow camp around Poland where they stayed for a about a year. after that period my great grandfather got send back to the Netherlands so he could continue his work as a peat worker which would benefit the germans as a fuel source. When he came home he was frail and almost unrecognizable to his wife. He had developed a deep hatred for the Germans so when he got liberated he decided never to set foot in Germany ever again.
The unbiased nature of this channel really highlights how quick the snowball is rolling at this point in the war... 😮😵
Quote from Anthony Beevor’s "The fall of Berlin" about the mood in the german capital:
"The following day, a sixteen-year-old Berliner called Dieter Borkovsky described what he witnessed in a crowded S-Bahn train from the Anhalter Bahnhof. `There was terror on the faces of people. They were full of anger and despair. I had never heard such cursing before. Suddenly someone shouted above the noise, "Silence!" We saw a small dirty soldier with two Iron Crosses and the German Cross in Gold. On his sleeve he had a badge with four metal tanks, which meant that he had destroyed four tanks at close quarters. "I've got something to tell you," he shouted, and the carriage fell silent. "Even if you don't want to listen to me, stop whingeing. We have to win this war. We must not lose our courage. If others win the war, and if they do to us only a fraction of what we have done in the occupied territories, there won't be a single German left in a few weeks." It became so quiet in that carriage that one could have heard a pin drop."
I notice he didn't mention how they were supposed to win the war.
And that he conveniently ignores that he was one of the people who committed the atrocities that made the Soviets so vengeful.
@@Healermain15They’ll use one Flak gun in the middle of a street, duh. #DerUntergang
On 13 April 1945 Assen (NL) was liberated.
Much earlier in the war, two men who were teachers, visited my grandfather who lived in Assen. My grandfather was head of school and had to dismiss them because they were Jews. My father was fascinated by the mandatory yellow stars on the clothing of these men.
In a street close to my grandfather’s, houses had been requisitioned by the Germans for Germans. There lived also a Dutchman who collaborated, he sometimes had extra tobacco and coal. At liberation, he was shaved bald.
The family of my father had never hunger. Next to them there was a bakery which made bread for the Germans. Sometimes ‘bread fell from the table’ which found its way. The quality of the bread was bad.
My grandfather became incurable ill later in the war, he died of the consequences in the autumn of 1945. Penicillin might have cured him, but that was not available.
It's CRAZY to suddenly see the Western Allies and the Soviet frontlines all in one single view now. The end is near.
Still more to cover, but it's on the horizon for sure. Thanks for watching!
Goebbels: THIS IS THE TURNING POINT
The Narrator: It was not the turning point.
Roosevelt's blood pressure numbers when he died was 300/190.
Jesus...
I believe, when he died, it was more like 0/0, but I ain't a doctor
200/120 is considered high enough to make a visit to a hospital emergency room highly advisable.
Source?
I don't feel so bad about my numbers now ... !
Yay I saw the US 15th Army on the map finally! I'm happy they got their credit now for being in the war. Though they didn't have a picture of their General Leonard Gerow in this weeks video next to their HQ. The US 15th Army was one of just 2 US armies that saw combat in WW2 that we haven't seen yet in any of the weekly episodes until now. The 15th Army has been fighting in France since the start of the year but seeing little combat (little combat in WW2 terms. The 15th Army's job was mostly to keep the Germans in the coastal ports after taking that job over from the US 9th Army. Units under US 15th Army did see combat during the Battle of the Bulge though and now during the fight of the Ruhr pocket as seen in this week's episode.
The other army we have not seen yet and I don't think we will now at this point is the US 8th Army which is a shame since the US 8th Army is going to play a MAJOR role in the Korean war series the team is working on. In WW2 the US 8th Army was sort of MacArthur and US 6th Army Commander General Kruger's clean up Army. The 8th Army fought in the islands north of Australia and worked from the East to the West until finishing up in the Philippines following behind the US 6th Army. I thought we would see them during the battle for Manila since command of that battle was passed to the 8th Army after the 6th Armies units got to the city from the North. The fighting in the Philippines was the most major combat the US 8th Army saw in WW2.
Other than the 15th and 8th the only other 2 real US armies (not counting the Ghost Armies) we have not seen are the US 2nd and 4th Armies which I expected as they were training and coastal defense armies. Formations under the 2nd Armies command defended the US East Coast and were trained on the East Coast before being sent to combat and formations under the 4th Army did the same but on the US West Coast. All US Odd numbered Armies fought in Europe and the Even numbered Armies fought in the Pacific.
1st - D-Day through France to Germany
2nd - US East Coast Defense
3rd - D-Day through France to Germany and then Czechia
4th - US West Coast Defense
5th - Up Italy to Austria
6th - Many islands in the Pacific and the Philippines
7th - North Africa to Sicily to South France, into Germany and ending in Austria
8th - Followed the 6th Army as their clean up formation
9th - Besieged the French Ports to the Atlantic, went through France to the Netherlands and into Germany meeting the Russians
10th - Fought the biggest land battle between the US and Japanese forces at Okinawa
15th - (11th through 14th Armies didn't exist) held the French ports after the 9th army and then fought into Germany
@@AndrewMitchell123 sorry, was on my phone and didn't have auto correct haha. I wanted to say Czechoslovakia but the 3rd Army only really gets into the Czechia part of the nation. Fixed it.
Yes I always like the appearance of the 15th Army,4th Army I remembered from reading about the early Paciific War in 41-42 ,when we expected the Japanese to invade the West Coast .Stillwell was the first commander ,covered the Western Coast from Southern Cali to Alaska .Good job ,thnaks for the update .
I seem to recall reading somewhere that Hitler likened the death of Roosevelt to the death of Elizabeth of Russia at a point in the Seven Years War when Prussia was about to lose everything. Her death resulted in the complete collapse of the coalition against Prussia and allowed Prussia to achieve peace while preserving the status quo as it was before the war began, hence Hitler's fantasy that Roosevelt's death would result in a similar fate for Germany. I think the phrase 'grasping at straws' applies. I imagine it's been a while since he has listened to Les Preludes.
Frederick the Great really was Hitler's great hero, fancying himself as like the new Frederick and as he increasingly lost touch with reality hoped that with the death of Roosevelt the great miracle would repeat itself.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 By this time they were clutching at straws.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Yeah, but isn't it fascinating the way they thought and grasped at straws?
Next episode’s title should be “The downfall”
It would be a spot on reference to the iconic german film that coincidentally also starts at the 20th of April
Pls make it happen
Maybe not the next episode but the episode after that
The Colonel Yahara mentioned at 19:17 or so was a staff officer who was largely responsible for the planning of the Japanese defense on Okinawa. He favored a defensive posture and feuded with Lt. General Isamu Cho, who favored a more aggressive strategy and at times wanted to order banzai attacks that Yahara advised against. He also survived the battle and was captured by the Americans, later writing The Battle for Okinawa, a book about the battle from his perspective. It's a facinating read and well worth checking out if you have any interest in the battle of Okinawa and can find an English translation.
I still think that it's really sad that Roosevelt died at this point - just before the end in Europe. :(
I had always known generally that he died late in the war, but it wasn't until now (well, the special episode yesterday) that I realized he made it this close to the end. :(
He had been to the mountaintop and saw the promised land. His work was done.
@@MrDubyadee1 I see what you did there.
@@MrDubyadee1 And was simply an amazing leader for the country outside of the war, too. The dude could die quite proud of everything.
I suspect that the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have preferred Roosevelt to have lived at least a few more months. He got on quite well with Stalin, and I doubt that he would have decided to vaporize two cities full of civilians just to intimidate the Soviets and keep them out of the Pacific.
On, or around, the 11th of April, the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over the UK will conduct its mission. An AR 234 jet operating from occupied Denmark will fly over Scapa Flow. Prior to this, Denmark based AR 234s conducted regular reconnaissance over the UK and North Sea starting in March 1945, continuing into early April, where lack of fuel either grounded them or they conducted operations over what remained of Nazi Germany.
In March, the last major air raid by aircraft on Britain had taken place. German night fighters followed RAF heavy bombers home and shot down a number of them as they were coming in to land. An RAF radio operator signalled "R" for "raid" but it took airfields vital minutes to switch off their beacons. Some night fighters also scattered anti-personnel bombs on runways and even strafed visible targets like railway stations when they turned around to head back to Germany. A number were shot down by British night fighters and were the last German planes shot down over Britain.
Very nice story at the end
Indeed, Semper Fidelis sir
Great work Indy ! Thank you for the fantastic videos
Indy, you never cease to amaze me. This episode was awesome! Almost hard to believe anyone can deliver the historic news and goings on like this. Just fantastic TGA!
The regular dedications have made recent episodes quite special for me. Hats off.
The memorials at the end hit it home for me. Amazing. Heartbreaking. Beautiful. Not sure why everything else isn’t quite as impactful, maybe it’s the immense scope of this war. But I need to be reminded that countless people of this war would return home and rebuild something that benefits exactly me and my family to this day.
Well said.
This is my first week in real time. I've been binging for the past couple years to catch up. Loved the series and appreciate all the hard work that went into it. I immediately joined the patreon.
You and your team are so brilliant. We appreciate all those gray cells.
I love the dedications, and what a beautiful story with a happy ending today! Thank you for sharing it with us, Captain Randy; and thank you for your service.
I just started watching this series and seeing new episodes come out after 6 years really makes one realize how long the war was.
Great and complete episode, thanks!
Thanks for watching!
I' m really gonna miss this series. I' ve been with the Time Ghost Army since September 1st 1939. The best WW2 series ever👍👍
We aren't going anywhere! Indy will be covering the Korean War: www.youtube.com/@KoreanWarbyIndyNeidell
And, there will still be new episodes on this channel in the form of specials and more!
@@WorldWarTwo I' ll be there. Count on it!👍
Wow, the scale of the forces squeezing Germany at this point is mind-boggling. They were 50 shades of screwed! My father was part of the American forces in the West that were told they would halt at the Elbe. They hated it at the time. But had we not made that decision I might not be here today.
Aside from all the German soldiers that had already been killed, a few million were also in captivity already. It is mind boggling that some still thought Germany could win the war when it was resorting to calling him old men and little boys to replace all the fighting aged men who were lost.
FDR knew he would not live long enough to see the war's end...
but, fraile as he was, he kept on giving it his ALL!
Excellent work Indy & team.
Thanks a lot, mate! -TimeGhost Ambassador
I hope Grace is well and healthy, thanks for the bits on William ❤
I have a feeling that this will be over by christmas, this time for sure!
So glad i was able to catch up on the series right before the finale :D
Great to here that!
I love the story about Willian and Grace. A personal tidbit among all the maps (great maps, btw) is very grounding. Aloha and mahalo for all you do.
Great as always. So much of what we have got over the last 50 years in the USA has to do mostly with US forces in Europe and less often with some of the sea battles with Japan and only a smattering of anything else. Your balanced and global approach of this global war has been enlightening and refreshing...in the sense of history. I also do enjoy the personal vignettes given with the dedications. I look forward to your future efforts...Thanks.
Randy Warmeaster, it is families like you that made this country great. Brave, tough, enduring, proud. Thank you for your service
Excellent and Outstanding!!!!
Glad you enjoyed, thank you for watching!
If anyone is interested, There’s a series of Nebula made by Jesse Alexander called 16 Days In Berlin, Which gives a day by day perspective on The Battle Of Berlin, I recommend watching it if you haven’t already
An excellent recommendation. I love that series
Real Time History 💪
There was something about the music used today in the video when talking about the plans to take Berlin. It was somehow both epic and dark at the same time, reflecting the gargantuan task ahead, in all its horror.
This is without a doubt the best series ever on WW2. I hope every video makes it in the millions.
You gotta be a special kind of evil to be like, "I'd rather ever german die horribly than admit defeat. And anybody who survives my mad reign is a weakling."
Hitler was a Social Darwinist, committed to the idea that the strong triumph and the weak perish.
Below is an excerpt of FDR's Flag Day address, June 14th 1942. It is one of my favorite pieces oration and was featured in the final episode of the documentary series "WWII Lost Films".
"The Spirit of man has awakened
The Soul of man has gone forth
Grant us the wisdom and the vision
to comprehend the greatness of man's Spirit
that suffers and endures so hugely for a goal
beyond his own brief span
We are all of us children of Earth
Grant us that simple knowledge
If our brothers are oppressed,
then we are oppressed
If they hunger, we hunger
If their freedom is taken away,
our freedom is not secure
Grant us a common faith,
that man shall know bread and peace
That he shall know justice and righteousness,
Freedom and security, an equal opportunity,
and an equal chance to do his best,
not only in our own lands, but throughout the world.
And in that faith, let us march, march toward the clean world,
our hands can make. Amen."
Rest in peace, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. You steadfastly guided The United States through two of its most trying times, and you passed when the victory you helped achieve was only months away.
You know what guys... Im starting to doubt that operation sealion is ever going to happen.
I dunno, Steiner could make a right hook after he's done singlehandedly defeating the Soviet forces.
I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Much appreciated!
Very good episode 👏 👌 👍 nice work especially pointing the words spoken by the leaders bravo
Thank you for watching!
Dutch resistance
Great dedication story at the end.
Seems quite apt for the westerners to hold at the Elbe. After all, that was the extreme boundary for how far the Romans were trying to push into Germania during the time of Augustus.
Its nice and all that people can get the video dedicated to a relative but i do miss the phone calls
Do not fret! They'll be back soon.
My Filipina Wife and I have a small farm north of Davao City on Mindanao, so I hope you post some information on the battle that took place in this location. I and other's regularly find bullets and rusty castoff material (one neighbor found part of a mortar round) and other rubbish.
Thank you.
I rode a bicycle tour up the Elbe from Dresden to Magdeburg a few years ago. Good land for tanks - very flat with few obstructions. There are little monuments here and there along the river, flying the allied flags, commemorating their meeting points along the way. The locals were not always happy to point them out.
I got to say I love the early access for Patreons!
Thanks for being a member!
It is astonishing that, after 4 months of Soviet offensive, there are still German troops resisting on the coast of East Prussia and that they will continue to do so until mid-May in the Vistula Spit and the Hel Peninsula.
Because they are terrified of retribution...
They knew what they did to Russian civilians and knew the Russians would return the favor.
There is still the Courland pocket though the video wont talk about them
@@exeexecutor festungkurland (sorry I played a lot of red orchestra back in the day) is more and more irrelevant at this point and so falls off the record, similar to what's going on in Rabaul
@@pnutz_2 thats not the same, Rabaul was cut off from supplies was rendered useless, meanwhile the courland pocket was well supplied they had all this equpment:
75 aircraft; 307 tanks and self-propelled guns; 1,427 guns; 557 mortars; 3,879 machine-guns; 52,887 rifles and submachine-guns; 219 armored personnel carriers; 310 radio stations; 4,281 motor vehicles; 240 tractors, 3,442 carts loaded with military cargoes, 14,056 horses.
I dont know what they had in Rabaul but one post mentions they had 1200 buildings of wich only 120 remained due to bombing. So you get the picture.
There were also 180.000 who surrendered in Courland pocket and 70.000 who surrendered in Rabaul.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
The death of Roosevelt overshadowed one of Patton's greatest failures, the Hamelburg Raid, to the point that it was almost forgotten about.
What a disgraceful episode for Patton. He should have been sacked for it, IMHO. Eisenhower was furious at him because he did it on the sly behind his back. For those who don't know, Patton had learned, likely from intelligence reports Eisenhower had forwarded to him in strictest confidence, that his son in law was in a German POW camp at Hamelburg only about 60 miles away. So, jealous of General MacArthur's favourable press for the saving of many US POWs in the Philippines, Patton put together an armoured column of tanks, trucks and more than 300 men and sent them to get the POWs. They managed to get to Hamelburg with difficulty but were mostly chopped to pieces on the way back. At least 30 men were killed, the entire armoured column lost, and the remaining men wounded and/or taken prisoner themselves, with but around 30 making it back to Allied lines. Immediately following the war Eisenhower sent a letter to General Marshall stating that "Patton is the problem child of the army." In the end Patton was assigned to commanding a very small army group, mostly writing up a history of the US army and its activities in northwest Europe. His career was likely doomed by his many indiscretions and foolish wasting of men's lives, and he must have known it. It may have been a kindness that he was injured in a car crash and died days later on December 21, 1945.
@@ToddSauve Given his politics it was absolutely a kindness to his historical memory that he died before the end of 1945. Had Patton stuck around through into the Cold War, he'd have been known as one of the most psychotically fascist, bloodthirsty commanders in NATO, and I'm not calling him a fascist lightly. There's a reason he's known to have remarked that "we fought the wrong enemy," even as the Nazis gassed an entire ethnicity into near-extinction.
@@browncoat697 Patton had little sympathy for Jews. He was the proverbial loose cannon, and many generals in the US army probably privately heaved a sigh of relief when they found out he was gone.
@@ToddSauve Honestly Patton probably should have been relieved of command for his outbursts in Italy. He was gifted in some respects but was far too much of a loose cannon. A general should have more restraint.
@@ahorsewithnoname773 I agree absolutely, and there is so much mythologizing of him by mostly American historians since the war who seemingly relied on newspaper reporters for their information. For instance, I went to Wikipedia this morning to ascertain his day of death, and near the start of the WW2 Normandy part of the article it said something along the lines of Patton was the most feared Allied general by the Nazis. "The German High Command had more respect for Patton than for any other Allied commander and considered him to be central to any plan to invade Europe from England." They may or may not have thought that by the end of the war but it was not that way before he showed up in Normandy in August 1944. I saw a video by historian Dr. Marc Milner and he stated that people have now gone through all of the German high command's archives from the war and Patton's name only appears a few times before the Normandy campaign and makes no mention of him being feared or even respected. All the Germans knew was that he had been in North Africa and Sicily, and beyond that it said nothing of significance. The 1970 movie "Patton" did a lot to spread these ideas of Patton's greatness but it does not stand up very well to rigorous scrutiny. And Wikipedia articles are all too often written by people who can't keep their enthusiasm for their subject in control, and lack objectivity all too often.
I really liked the story of this video's dedication. I know that the grander aspects of history are the most popular, such as battles, military equipment, and politics. This is something I have never really understood. I still enjoy these aspects, but I've always felt a certain degree of distance from them. Put me in front of a story about people, especially relatively ordinary people and it's a completely different situation. These stories feel more intimate and much easier to connect to. It is through people that I truly come to appreciate these different periods of history and understand what it was like to live through them. I especially liked the part of the story about Monopoly. It was like I could put myself in the shoes of the people involved.
Seeing how close the western allies and soviet lines are to each other at this point is such a shock. Really emphasizing how close to the end we are.
Can’t believe the allied are still south of Bologna and the war there will end in 12 days. The last tragic two weeks of war in Italy.
The Poles with the Red Army here going: "This time, the Winged Hussars do not arrive."
The hope of Hitler refers to what is called in German history "Miracle of the house of Brandenburg".
Prussia was in a very dire situation and would likely lose the war. However, when Elizabeth of Russia died on the 5th of January 1762 everything changed. Russia changed sides and joined Prussia under Peter III. When his wife Catherine the Great killed him, she stopped the war but did not rejoin the coalition against Prussia.
And so Prussia eventually won. And this is what Hitler and other Nazis were hoping for: That the inherently unstable coalition against them would split up and they could survive the war. They did not count that their absolutely awful crimes would prevent that.
The thing is that none of the agonists in that war had been genocidal nationalists with enormous amounts of blood on their hands.
@@Turnipstalk Also the US was not an autocracy ruled by the whims of a single leader.
thank you
Thank you for watching.
Thank you for all the work you've put into this series! I'm excited for the Korean war series because I don't know as much about the Korean War as I'd like.
I do hope that you put out some specials about the WWII post-war period . How did the victors manage the humanitarian crisis? (For example, I've heard that some Holocaust survivors had to continue living in the camps for a while.) What did it take to start rebuilding? What were the political considerations? Topics like that.
I'm pretty sure they have promised to do that.
Well that story and the end was just sweet.
It's looking like things will be perfectly timed for you to finish WWII and move seamlessly onto WWIII coverage. Your foresight is commendable.
Great video as always ! Not mentionning Leo Major liberating Zwolle by himself the 13th of april, you missed something !
I am watching from Grand Rapids Michigan...
Watching the Jugs dive in formation always gets me.
Thanks
Thanks for watching!
your set is gorgeous btw :)
Thank you! -TimeGhost Ambassador
thanks indy and crew
And thanks for watching!
I've had relatives fight in the partisan forces in the USSR, others were placed in camps and thankfully they survived. One other was a pilot who was shot down and another was taken by the Germans on a random day and sent to fight in Germany. He refused and somehow survived, moving to Finland after the war.
Friend of mine worked in the NZ embassy in Bonn years ago. He used to like to drive around Europe. He was told never to go into the Netherlands in a car with German plates, because the odds were it would end up in a canal😁.
There is a special episode about the death of FDR published earlier this week which is well-worth watching.
There is indeed, thanks for the shout out!