Week 293 - The Battle of Okinawa Begins - WW2 - April 6, 1945
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2024
- It's the next step toward invading Japan's Home Islands- invading Okinawa, and it begins April 1st. Advances are easy by land, but at sea the kamikaze menace is in full swing. In Burma, plans are made to liberate Rangoon; in the west hundreds of thousands of Germans are surrounded in the Ruhr; and in the east, the Soviets begin assaults on Königsberg and Vienna.
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Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
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Written by: Indy Neidell
Research by: Indy Neidell
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Mikołaj Uchman
Jaris Almazani (Artistic Man), artistic.man?ig...
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Image sources:
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Easy Target - Rannar Sillard
At the Front - Phoenix Tail
Dragon King - Jo Wandrini
41 clicks from the sun - Hampus Naeselius
Live, Fight, Survive - Anthony Earls
Leave It All Here - Fabien Tell
Other Sides of Glory - Fabien Tell
Run and Hide - Philip Ayers
Break Free - Fabien Tell
The Hourglass - Jon Bjork
Dark Beginning - Johan Hynynen
Rush of Blood - Reynard Seidel
Shrouded in Conspiracy - Jon Bjork
It's Not a Game - Philip Ayers
Wicked Games - Philip Ayers
Please Hear Me Out STEMS INSTRUMENTS - Philip Ayers
Planting the Seeds - David Celeste
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
This week's episode is dedicated by TimeGhost Brigadier Member, Charles Mitchell, not only to his father, Tom, but also to all the South African men who shared a similar experience during the war. We thank Charles for sharing this with us and for being such a dedicated member of the TimeGhost Army.
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.
Why this ridiculous countdown with the noise? Is there a setting in the googleware djungle that lets you simply skip it?
You are reporting week by week, from historical records , which is written with a certain level of detail matched to the length of video. How was the reporting of the war to the war leaders carried out and with what time delay I wonder.
Much reporting during the war was incomplete , false , or unintelligible by people , who must have found it difficult to grasp any event as presented.
After the War the general public had to play catch up with the details of conflict and their role in it before it became history. Thank you for presenting such huge slices of history that touched our lives yesterday and informs our lives today. Many Sons And Daughters may better understand their parents generation who won through their war to start family life.
@@robinwhitebeam3955 A very important and advanced question!
As a casual reader of history I'd say that politicans were, and are, systematically misinformed by their underlings censoring and filtering and coloring information and making up pure lies out of nowhere in order to gain personal profit at the expense of mass death for others. Exactly like all Western media does today! Totally bizarre liars without any inhibition in their psychopathy and never any kind of contact with anything that exists in reality. Those who only follow western MSM know nothing at all. As an opposite, in Russia and China there is free media that uses information and logic. Unknown concepts in the oppressed west today.
Officers below next-to-political ranking surely had much less manipulation to their info, from among their own, but were occasionally misled by the enemy's deceptions. And of course even in best case had only fragmented data distorted by honest misunderstandings and by gaps from people to report simply going missing and the radio breaking down and whatnot can go wrong.
@@robinwhitebeam3955 A very important and advanced question!
As a casual reader of history I'd say that politicans were, and are, systematically misinformed by their underlings censoring and filtering and coloring information and making up pure lies out of nowhere in order to gain personal profit at the expense of mass death for others. Exactly like all Western media does today! Totally bizarre liars without any inhibition in their psychopathy and never any kind of contact with anything that exists in reality. Those who only follow western MSM know nothing at all. As an opposite, in Russia and China there is free media that uses information and logic. Unknown concepts in the oppressed west today.
Officers below next-to-political ranking surely had much less manipulation to their info, from among their own, but were occasionally misled by the enemy's deceptions. And of course even in best case had only fragmented data distorted by honest misunderstandings and by gaps from people to report simply going missing and the radio breaking down and whatnot can go wrong.
@@bjorntorlarssonEh? Anything inherently wrong with covering the politics of the final months of the war? By all metrics, the Allies haven't exactly been depicted as clean, can't-do-no-wrong people either. Their feuds with the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai Shek, the negotiations of Allan Dules in Italy and the frank pettiness of Churchill in Greece have all been covered pretty well in this channel
05:00 First Cat Army deploys to Australia
antarctic defense force
🤣🤣🤣
And very stealthily! As expected of a Cat Army.
Also, this has been released a little more than half hour ago. How is it you posted your comment 17h ago?
@@ramonribascasasayas7877 Patreon's supporters can watch the videos few days before the others
@@ramonribascasasayas7877 He's trying to distract my attention from the mis-positioned Great Lakes. It worked.
Oh that's quite cute
5:00 Okay, I DEMAND to know that cat's name and how much mischief they cause around the timeghost offices!
She is Mindy Idle, the cat. (I'm a good guesser)
Smiling Albert?
Looks more like a Panther to me.
@@SuperRootUser Ah, but since the Timeghost studios are in Germany, that would make it a Panzer, nicht wahr?
José Paulus
As the drum roll started on that day, heard 200 clicks away, a million AA shells were fired as the Yamato turned to grey...
Love it! Sequel to Fields of Verdun.
Liked it. 😂😊
As it tried to fight off air attacks, the Yamato even used its big guns firing shrapnel rounds in the air in an attempt to shoot down attacking planes.
I feel simultaneously foolish - yet fully human - at my sadness for the way Yamato exited this world. In some kind of naive dream I conjure up ideas and ways that she (and the lives of her crew) were held back or even surrendered to the allies....so that we might still see her imposing and remarkable silhouette as a fitting museum ship.
Reality slaps me in the face and insists there was no way, means or plan that would allow Yamato to remain afloat during a savage and infernally hot shooting war. She had to die.
I might add that I feel even more sentiment and remorse for the countless Allied ships of the USN, RN, RAN, RNZN and others lost while bravely "doing their job".
I always end up concluding that war sucks - even when it is abundantly and so obviously necessary.
@@stevekaczynski3793 And using the big guns like that turned out to be massively counterproductive, because the huge muzzle blasts forced a lot of the AA gunners to leave their posts and take cover.
Smiling Albert Kesselring will turn this around.
Edit: The Allies are fighting with the unfair advantage of having food, ammunition, and fuel.
And sane leadership, for the most part.
Quite unsporting in my opinion
As per tradition, he isn’t “Smiling Albert.” You gotta say the full “Smiling Albert Kesselring” or just “Kesselring.”
That's not cricket
Its war. All things are fair! (well most things).
This week, the Americans have finally achieved any HOI4 player's dream: encircling the enemy and then being able to drive straight onward with no resistance. 3rd and 7th armies go vroom.
Hirohito asks a normal question out of genuine curiosity (possibly).
The IJN: "*GASP* we have failed the Emperor, everyone disembowel your selves"
To be fair, Hirohito was right here
The army was sending troops to literalyl die fighting to the last for each island in the pacific while, from his point of view, the navy had not done anything since the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October (well apart from that naval detachmeant suicide battle in Manila).
The navy had pretty much lied to japanease high command about their actual loses for years and now, at the last battle before the japanease main islands, already on japanease soil, the navy would not contribute anything to defend the homeland?
And as cynical as it sounds using Yamato as bait to draw of US planes so a massive kamikazeattack run has better chances is propably the best use of the ship the japanease have left. There is no way for them to protect the ships against US naval bombers once these could be launched from Okinawa and freely bombevery port in southern japan anyway. There were already submarines everywhere around and between the japanease islands as the japanease would know do to shinanos fate late 1944.
If your going to lose the ship anyway sooner or later to bombers, might as well use it now.
*lie about the state of your navy, maybe he won't find out all you have left is your ship that's too big to lose, a cruiser and a fishing trawler.*
Hirohito: "Hey don't we have a navy.
"Okay lads let's fucking sink all of it."
The IJN did a little trolling
He wasn't asking a question out of curiosity. The emperor, like most regents in history, was trained to say what he was thinking indirectly. When he asked "What was the Navy doing?" it was a stinging chide for them to do more to defend the island, rather than just leave the army garrison completely without support.
What a cringeworthy comment.
You must be easily cringed...
Japan: keeping the same prime minister without shenanigans challenge, 99.999% impossible
They're the only major player that kept changing its leader.
Since your next series is about Korean War, I think it would be interesting to have a special episode about the situations on the Korean peninsula and the Koreans during the Second World War. How the powers that will be and powers that will play have spent the days of WW2, such as Kim Il Sung and Syngman Rhee
A great suggestion. There is a lot of significant information which led up to this forgotten war.
I'm assuming we get the preliminary episodes just like with between two wars, detailing the division of korea, establishment and consolitation of both Syngman Rhee's and Kim Il Sung's regimes.
Personally, I am wondering however, will the series have the same level of accuracy as this one, considering that North Korean archives still remain closed, while the Russian ones at least were open long enough for the western historians to take a look.
I’d be very surprised if that’s not a prelude episode.
@@blackore64To be fair, aren't Japanese archives largely closed to this day as well?
Koreans were used as labourers, sometimes on Pacific islands. They were often killed by the Americans, and sometimes by the Japanese. If they could surrender, they did. Koreans were also used to guard POWs - a despised occupation for Japanese troops. Themselves mistreated by the Japanese, they were often brutal to POWs. As Japan's military situation declined, there was an increasing tendency to use Koreans as combat troops, and a handful of Kamikaze pilots were Koreans.
My grandfather served on the Indianapolis. He ran the breech of an 8” gun. Okinawa was his last action aboard her. She returned to San Francisco for refit and he got off. Then she carried the gadget to end the war and later be sunk.
No one ever talks about her damage taken in Okinawa. Thank you.
The USS Indianapolis is a tragic tale of what a real Shark Army can do in combat.
I'm glad your grandfather was not subjected to that horror.
The fate of the Indianapolis, was recounted in the film "Jaws."
It was the reason the character Quinn, hated sharks.
2:30 Damage to Indianapolis mentioned by Indy!
@@paulbeesley8283 I didn't realise that... or had I forgotten? Its certainly elevated the movie in my estimation.
Thanks to Charles - my dad is a SA 6th Division veteran, drove a tank in the SSB in italy and was one of the first tanks to enter Florence - he is currently 99 years old living with me in Canada.
Also today, April 6th 1945, Sarajevo is liberated.
Quite poetic considering its basically where it all started
@NicolasHaufe Faith had it that also in 1992 on April 6th the war in Sarajevo broke out.
Also, since 1945 April 6th is celebrated as the Day of Sarajevo and they also give out awards to people who had a big impact on its history
@@rankoorovic7904 well ww2 doesnt happen without ww1
@@rankoorovic7904some historians count everything from ww1 up until the fall of the Soviet Union the same interlinked event
@@rankoorovic7904You’re not wrong about all of history being interlinked. As they say, history doesn’t happen in a vacuum
Kangaroo Suzuki might be a good nickname, but Suzuki Kangaroo sounds like a sport bike.
“When a kamikaze hits a US carrier, it’s six months repair at Pearl. In a Limey carrier it’s a case of “sweepers, man your brooms”. (anonymous US Navy Liaison officer on HMS Indefatigable )
HMS Illustrious arrived at the Norfolk Navy Yard in the United States on 12 May 1941 for permanent repairs. Some important modifications were made to her flight deck arrangements, including the installation of a new aft lift and modification of the catapult for use by American-built aircraft. Her light antiaircraft armament was also augmented during the refit.
HMS Formidable received emergency repairs before departing on 24 July 1941 for permanent repairs at Norfolk Navy Yard in the United States. She arrived on 25 August, and the repairs were completed in early December. After several days of sea trials, she sailed for Britain in company with Illustrious on 12 December.
During the night of 15/16 December, Illustrious collided with Formidable's stern.
It's not quite true. US carriers could be brought back to service at sea by putting in a new wooden deck. And when a British carrier suffered severe damage she had to leave the combat zone as well. In the end the question was what was the better defense, an armored deck and hangar or having a massive airgroup that could intercept attacking aircraft. The Royal Navy decided that quantity was a quality after all and ordered 16 carriers during the war with no armor whatsoever. 4 of them almost making it to the Pacific by war's end and would have seen service off Japan if the war had continued. Oddly enough, those 16 carriers were seen as disposable, as in for only as long as the war lasted, but they outlived the big armored carriers, with the last one seeing service with the Brazilian navy until 2001.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623The Being in service with the Brazilian Navy isn't really a high bar to reach, is it? And what was the readiness rate of said carrier during the later part of her Brazilian service life?
@@martijn9568 Judging non-Western armed forces as lesser then Western armed forces is how the West KEEPS LOSING WARS! Despite operating outdated aircraft the Argentinians sank quite a lot of British ships in 1982. Minas Gerais was operational and capable of operating fixed wing aircraft in the last years of her life. Including Skyhawks. But the point I was trying to make is that she outlived the much lauded British armored carriers and even their successors. And her sister, Veinticinco de Mayo, was still considered dangerous enough in 1982 for the Royal Navy to dedicate significant forces to sink her. And that was in 1982, 4 years after the UK retired its last real aircraft carrier. The armored carrier that people keep on praising for being able to shrug off kamikazes, was an evolutionary dead end in carrier evolution.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 In 1982 I had a reference book with a list of Royal Navy ships, and I remember drawing a pencil line through the ones that were sunk. That conflict was a nearer-run thing than many realise.
Fun fact: The Japanese destroyer Suzutsuki, which escorted Yamato during Ten-Go, had her bow blown off by an American torpedo bomber during the air interdiction. She fell out of formation, but was able to make it back to Sasebo by steaming over 200 miles all in reverse.
Yep! Very impressive on her crew's part, and lucky to avoid sub/air attacks. Along with her sister ship Fuyutsuki (also survived this battle) she would end up, along with the old Momo-class destroyer Yanagi, used as a part of a breakwater after the war. The three ships still exist, though these days the two Akizuki-class sisters are entirely entombed in concrete; the upper part of Yanagi next to them can still be visited.
She bowed out of the fight then...? With a stern look?
“The front fell off.”
That's quite an incredible piece of history!
@@johnclements5888 "The bear fell on me" from Roadhouse.
5:00 Japanese "Nekko" troops infiltrate Time Ghost headquarters.....
LMFAO dork
A cat-astrophe!
@@WorldWarTwo the 1st special service for us” the Devils brigade!” Knees, its own episode, special. You mentioned it before but it’s never gotten its own special before and I believe it does deserve one considering its history and it’s impact on the war and on modern special forces..
Indie, you need to sit stroking the cat in your lap one episode, doing your best Bloefeld or Vito Corleone impression!
Dr. Evil would be a funny one.
To Tom and his son,
I am an American. So I say this as an ally to South Africa. I thank the heavens that men like Tom, and the millions of other young men and women, existed to fight to help free a world gone mad.
Tom and the several hundred million people similar to him belong to the greatest generation of people to have ever lived.
Indy I thank you for highlighting the regular infantrymen that have fought and sometimes died to save civilization. Their stories deserve to be told and heard.
South Africa will not become part of the free word for nearly another 50 years. To be honest the US isn’t really part of the free world for another 20 years and the passage of the Voting Rights Act. If the Supreme Court and the Republican Party get their way the US may cease to be part of the free world.
My fathers ship HMS Indefatigable was the first British carrier kamikaze'd on April first. Casualties were 21 killed and 27 wounded but they managed to clear the flight deck and resume flying with 35 minutes.
My grandfather fought in the 42nd rainbow division. One of his favorite stories to tell was about the battle of Wurzburg going on this week during WW2. He died March 11, 2021, age 97.
My father in law, William Rosch, served in the Army on Okinawa.
Salute.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching.
I thank him for his service!!
I strongly recommend Eugene Sledge’s _With the Old Breed_ describing his experiences on Peleliu and Okinawa. When he landed, Marines had already encountered the main Japanese line. He could hear the artillery. Okinawa was his second campaign: he had more than a small idea of what waited there. He describes his impression of the uncontested parts of Okinawa as he marched towards that shellfire: “It really was such a beautiful country. It was hard to believe we were going to fight a war in it.”
I also read it, but if I remember correctly, he heard about the army walking into the defensive lines some days later, on the day of the landing, no significant resistance was encountered, and definitely not by the marines (the marines went up north while the army clashed into the defensive lines in the south)
Great quote, thanks for sharing.
@@maximilianodelrio I may not remember correctly. It’s been a few years, and I don’t have my copy at hand. I’ll have to try to find it again.
My father was in the second wave to land, 45 seconds after the first wave. He was an ARMY Combat Engineer. He was involved in a lot of cave fighting. Eventually he fought all the way to the southern tip of the island. All that cave fighting left very bad memories with him that he lived with for the rest of his life.
My Great Uncle was a sailor aboard a destroyer during those Kamikaze strikes. He never talked about it much till he was in his 90s. He apparently cried telling my uncle about it. I think it was five Kamikazes total, of which one struck the superstructure of the ship. (The others I guess were shot down)
I spoke to a veteran a while back who took part in the battle for Okinawa. He was in one of the earlier landing waves, and mentioned how some guys got pinned between the swaying landing craft and the ships as they were loading on board. He made it through the initial landing, but didn't speak much about it understandably. He was later hit 3 times while attacking a machine gun position, and was in recovery for the remainder of the war. He was a radioman, and made it a point to always carry a Thompson with him on Okinawa, despite the weight of his equipment.
Hi Charles that is such a special thing you did, completing your father’s story. As a South African I thank you for your tribute to our fellow countrymen and women, I hope to read your book soon. Take care
small story: my hometown of Bielefeld was liberated on April 4th by US troops. The city was taken without much resistance, thanks in part to the efforts of local priest Karl Pawlowski, who rode along the German lines on his bike, waving his talar and his cross and shouting at the soldiers to stop fighting and go home.
The mayor of Brackwede (a small town that's since been integrated into Bielefeld), Karl Bitter, tried to stop resistance and remove a tank trap but was arrested and executed for treason without a trial by SA thugs just a day before US forces took the city. They liberated not just the city but thousands of forced labourers
allegedly*. the town of Bielefeld doesn't exist.
RIP future space battleship Yamato
This was the 'big one' for my grandfather. He spent a significant amount of time on the radar picket line, and his ship was attacked multiple times. His was one of a couple dozen destroyer type ships (DD, APD, DMS, DE) That emerged unscathed.
My fathers best friend George Nebb, served on the Pensacola, he was a plank owner having been on the Pensacola since it's launching. Before he passed away in 1968, he gave me his cruise album, photos he had of the ship from day one. It's an amazing collection as he was on board till the ship was decommissioned in 1946. All of those sailors involved in combat operations deserve hero status.
Time Cat Army!
From a comercial point of view, cat contend rules supreme.
After the events of 1941, Model must be thinking "this isn't as much fun when it happens to us." Thank you for another great episode, TGA! It was fun to see Indy with a guest star (5:00).
10:50 This wasn't just Mountbatten's obsession, it was also Winston Churchill's. Churchill wanted to use the strong Royal Navy fleet based in India as part of a joint amphibious offensive that would be credited mostly to the Brits. He was tired of the UK being a supporting player to American campaigns.
But the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet was in no shape to do anything until the 2nd half of 1944 when the Royal could finally release its big carriers from the Mediterranean and Home Fleets. And most of the Eastern Fleet then left the Indian Ocean to become the British Pacific Fleet. And the wars in Europe and Pacific prioritized all the available landing craft so Dracula could never take place anyway. It's the ironies that the 2 major contributions of the UK to the war against Japan, were brought about despite Churchill and his mad crazy schemes. Slim had to fight his superiors to get his 14th Army to retake Burma. And the British admirals also had to fight Churchill to form the British Pacific Fleet, which they saw as far more useful then any of Churchill's crazy invasion schemes in the Indian Ocean.
The book they are using, Frank McLynns, The Burma campaign, is really bad with lots of factual errors.
It also reduces all of the stuff in the Burma campaign to being about the personalities of the generals involved rather than tactical or logistical considerations. Those pop up of course but at the same time he will describe this person as "devious" or "arrogant" etc.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 It isn't as bad on the British side as you say, although Churchill was unrealistically bent on a couple of amphibious campaigns. In his multivolume history of the war he is constantly complaining about the lost opportunities. He wanted to invade Greece and the Balkans in 1943 while the Italian campaign was still far from Rome. The limiting factor was always the number of landing craft available. He claimed he needed only enough to land 2 divisions, IIRC, but everyone knew that would draw more and more troops into a campaign as large as the Italian one. Churchill was a staunch monarchist and wanted to restore the monarchies of Greece and several Balkan countries and avoid the communists there from taking over. He was right about the communists but that was unfortunately inevitable. In the event, it took the Soviets many divisions to overcome Hungary and Romania.
In other histories I don't recall the British admirals fighting with Churchill over the Burma invasion, although they probably were in 1944. Nimitz and MacArthur had minimal interest in augmenting their huge number of ships. The British Navy had long been assigned to the left flank, from New Guinea and northward, job they were handling well. The Indian Ocean fleet was separate from that, there to defend India. At this point they could shift those ships from defense to offense. Churchill wanted to restore British control over her colonies, that was a big priority, although it was very low on the American list.
Churchill had never liked the long slugging fight overland through Burma, with difficult supply lines. Its main goal was to establish a land route to China, not reconquer Burma. He gave low priority to supplying China, while that was a very high on the American list.
@@donjones4719 It isn't as bad on the British side as you say, although Churchill was unrealistically bent on a couple of amphibious campaigns. In his multivolume history of the war>>In other histories I don't recall the British admirals fighting with Churchill over the Burma invasion, although they probably were in 1944. Nimitz and MacArthur had minimal interest in augmenting their huge number of ships. The British Navy had long been assigned to the left flank, from New Guinea and northward, job they were handling well. The Indian Ocean fleet was separate from that, there to defend India. At this point they could shift those ships from defense to offense. Churchill wanted to restore British control over her colonies, that was a big priority, although it was very low on the American list.
So out of curiosity were there any notable battles for the BPF in 1944? At this point all you end up hearing is stuff like Leyte Gulf or Philippine Sea, I really don't get to hear about the British or Anzac contributions that aren't burma.
I recall they retook Sentinel Islands I think?
As a South African, that last message was very touching.
We are very happy to have been able to work with Charles on this one, thanks for watching.
05:00 I see I'm not the only one who has to worry about Cat attacks! XD
Time to watch Hacksaw Ridge, a great movie which proves you can't pack all of Doss's heroism into a single film.
I've only managed to see clips. It's over the top with grit, mud, blood and realism. I hope to watch its entirety at some point, but I'd be inclined to a mild pre-dose of xanax or the like. It's realistic to a point and then even in the worse scenes you realize it was (in reality) far worse than can be depicted I suspect.
Doss was a great man. He's with the Lord now where he belonged all along.
Yes, and likely the only person from any country who won a medal for valor and never used a weapon.
Operation Dracula eh? I guess those Austro-Hungarians in that forest must have been so frustrated to find that Dracula is still around 30 years later so far from the Carpathians, and that Conrad Von Hoetzendorf is still commanding them. As for the Admiral in the Ruhr, well, I mean, Horthy was an admiral without a fleet and regent of a kingdom without a king, so I guess someone had to appease the Hungarians in Germany.
For those wondering why British carriers were better at taking kamikaze hit than American carriers, is because British carriers were designed to mostly operate in and around the north and Mediterranean seas where you are never going to bring more planes than any of the land based aircraft in range, so the question isn’t if you get hit but when. This did mean British carriers could bring fewer planes than their American counterparts due to tonnage restrictions imposed by the naval treaties.
But you have just to take a look at the pounding HMS Illustrious during operation Excess as compared to the Japanese carriers at Midway a half year later and see how she survived.
It didn't help that those escort carriers were built out of paper mache and breadsticks. They were designed to be 'disposable' for lack of a better term, built and put to sea quickly in order to fill an immediate need.
The USS Midway launched only a few weeks ago would be the first American carrier with an armored flightdeck
@@Raskolnikov70 jup, that´s why the crew often refered to them as Kaiserscoffins, as they were build in the Kaiser shipyards.
@@saltzkruber732 Funny you should say that because the original USS Midway was the first major warship to sink due to kamikaze, she was renamed USS St. Lo a few weeks prior to free up the name that carrier.
@@Raskolnikov70 Escort carriers had the Naval designation of CVE, which the crews said stood for Combustable, Vulnerable and Expendable.
Where will Germany be in a month time from now? If there is anything left of it.
Meanwhile in The Netherlands the families of my grandparents still live under occupation, but advancing Canadian troops are advancing towards the north of the country, where they live. Next week my father, his sister and their parents will be liberated. About half a week later it is the turn for my mother, her sister, her brothers and their parents. But not after heavy fights and fires in the centre of Groningen where they lived.
If you want a different perspective on the battle of Okinawa, I highly recommend 'The Girl with the White Flag' by Tomiko Higa. She was 7-years old during the battle, literally caught in the crossfire, and survived by luck & her wits. I got to meet her in 1995 when I was stationed on Okinawa.
Thank you for the rec.
My grand uncle was fleet and was there. He had no kind words for them. What a kind thing the son did for his dad. I wish I had it. I’m fortunate to have heard the stories first hand from many vets long gone now. I owed them and I took my turn in the ‘modern’ era. OIF/OEF Haiti. RIP to my comrades in arms wherever they may be.
I love the special dedications you are now allowing. It makes things more personal. I especially include the piece you read out.
It's great to hear that you're enjoying the special dedications! We've actually been doing them for a while but many seemed to have ended up around this period. Thanks for watching.
I find it fascinating how the Soviets made such big plans with such concrete timetables. And even more so how these plans then also worked out. The people there making these plans must have been some serious geniuses.
Spending the first two years of the war getting their butts handed to them really helped the Soviets focus on improving their doctrine and tactics.
Agree with this. They're oporational staff seem to constantly be planning and replanning major offensives and pivoting within weeks to take new objectives. Reported week-to-week like this, it makes the Western Allies look extremely ponderous and slow to react.
O5 = OE = Ö = Österreich = Austria. That is why the resistance group had that name.
Thank you !
Okinawa. That little island in the middle of the sea would soon become infamous.
Back in 1993, I was asked if I could drive a veteran for his checkup at the VA. It would be just a one-time thing. I said fine no problem. Westly Fulks was also a past master of Bayview Lodge # 120 A.F. & A.M. in Niantic, CT; I was the Senior Decon at the time; well, it ended up being an ongoing thing till he died in 1998. WB. Westly was a veteran of the Battle of Okinawa, and the only reason I know that is that some of the others in the waiting room asked him where he had been; he just said Okinawa, and that was all. Later on the drive home, well after 5 pm, you get to wail a few hours at the VA. His 1 pm appointments never happen on time, always around 4 to 4:30. So we get a cup of coffee, and on the way, Wes never says much, " It will not be long now," with a smile. This was in November and in January of 1996 I was to be installed as Master of Bayview Lodge. Wes never said much about Okinawa, he didn't have to, he was still having problems with that part of his life right up till he died. One time, something became one of my most treasured memories, spending time with Wes, that I otherwise would not have. World War II will soon only exist in books and in documentaries. Bayview was a seaman's lodge; many members were Submariners, fishermen, and merchant seamen.
Along with guys from the Army and Airforce, some truckers, and even a professional pilot, myself. Bayview has since, like a lot of the lodges in recent years, gone dark. The only thing I ever wore on a suit coat was a little blue "Forgetmenot," it's a little flower that is tied to less than pleasant things.
This week on April 6th 1945, the following missions in the Call of Duty series will begin:
*April 3 1945*
Black Cats (Call of Duty: World at War) - As Petty Officer Locke in the Philippine Sea, Pacific Ocean, you will start out in a PBY Catalina flying boat and will first target enemy merchant vessels resupplying the enemy at Okinawa. Soon there will be enemy Zero fighter planes that will start attacking the flying boat and will need to be taken out as well. You will also need to rescue surviving sailors out of the water as well in the process. This is one of the more unique levels in the campaign.
The tale of those fucking PT boats.
Landry: Captain... Distress call coming in... The fleet's been hit en route to Okinawa. Air support too far out... Atleast one infantry transport ship has already gone down.
Booth: Okay... Locke, seal the ventral hatch. We'll be putting down on the ocean... Let's go get our men...
OST for this mission is peak. There's nothing like it
Also got the most fire ass soundtrack of any mission in cod
True true. World at War has some of the best OST.
That guy Stalin...y'know, I'm beginning to get a feeling that he's not all that trustworthy and maybe a little bit paranoid...
Oh no, what might have given you that idea? 😉
Given that Soviet espionage was rather good and sometimes pervasive in WW2, I wonder if details of Allied-German negotiations in Italy were being leaked to Stalin by someone among the Allied negotiators?
@@stevekaczynski3793 The Soviets had utterly penetrated British intelligence and even the US to a degree. Stalin probably knew what Churchill would have for lunch before Churchill did. Just look up the Cambridge Five.
Stalin was a lovely family man, he just had bad press😂
Your comment has displeased the Party, local bill collectors will be visting you shortly sir.
When I was in high school; lo, these many years ago, I worked for a guy who was a veteran of Okinawa. I still have the Japanese rifle that he brought back from there.
Does it still have the chrysanthemum symbol on the metalwork?
SPOILER
At the surrender, most such rifles had this symbol of the Emperor erased before being handed over. Rifles that still have it are rarer and more valuable.
And while the Americans are occupied with Okinawa and the British with Burma, the cat attacks Australia 🥰
Finally the liberation of Vienna begins. Those were certainly no easy times for my ancestors, when the war reached the city. But in the end Vienna was lucky, that it was not totally destroyed and we can still enjoy today the splendor of the former imperial capital.
"liberation"
Austrians once again believing their own post war bullshit story...first victim my ass.
Austrians were so "anti nazi" and "victims" that they were massively over represented in the SS compared to their share of the population in the german armed forces.
Slightly over three decades before, Stalin had checked into a "pension" or small hotel in Vienna under a fake identity as a Greek named Papadopoulos, and began work on the pamphlet "Marxism And The National Question". He seems to have hardly gone out, which makes it unlikely he encountered either Hitler or Tito, though apparently both were in Vienna at the same time he was. Stalin finished the pamphlet and returned to Russia, where he was arrested, almost certainly fingered by the informer in the Bolshevik ranks Roman Malinovsky. Stalin was sent into exile in Siberia, where he spent WW1 until the Tsar's abdication.
Hope the Aussies have no hard felines about that.
We all know what we want after the WWII series come to end:The 100 years war - week by week!
Gonna copy Indys brain into a computer so that he can cover the entire human history... week by week.
@@NuclearBunker25Mr. House
Can start with 30 years wae
@tylercamp563 "Why would I want to go to war with CZcams? I upload all my videos there. Were it not for their algorithms constantly demonetizing my content I would have no problems with CZcams at all."
-Indy, 2281
Just a matter of time before Steiner's counter attack.
And boy do I hope Indy starts things with a phone call receiving updates on the counter attack when it comes.
The historians who think the Emperor didn't order the Navy to do something are blessed by never having had a passive-aggressive person in their lives. That wasn't just an innocent question, he humilated them with this order.
He asked a bunch of questions during that meeting.
Passive-aggressive and supposedly also divine. Quite a combination...
It wasn't "passive aggressive" so much as it was the way the emperor, like every emperor before him, had been trained to speak. They did not just casually and directly tell subordinates what do to, they made deliberate, indirect remarks that made clear their wishes. In this case, to do more to assist the Army in defending Okinawa.
It's actually a very passive-aggressive culture, by Western standards. Japanese phrasing tends not to state anything directly.
@@jamesgillen2339 The war's course is not necessarily to Japan's advantage, or something like that. Makes British understatement seem direct and abrupt...
One of my uncles was a Navy Sea Bee on Okinawa. He told me a few stories about it. Just horrible.
video managed to gloss over the tens of thousands of civilians(of all ages) floating in & around the beaches who had drowned themselves prior to the landings
my grandfather was in the 24th thrown in with the Americans and had to bury stacks of children and old women
some soldiers have it easy; only being hit by bullets
4:59 !!!!!!!! KITTY !!!!!!!!
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
5:00 The cat is searching for the Japanese 62nd.
Dad was a 1st Class Petty Officer and the Coxswain of a USN LCT-6 amphibious landing craft at Okinawa. Thank you for covering this invasion.
My Dad was on LCVPs there as well!
My paternal grandfather almost certainly has close relatives like some cousins, maybe an uncle, he never told me, who had fought as part of South African forces in the Second World War, so that last bit was related to me personally.
Beware Indy! At 5:10 there is a kitty shaped appearance in the lower right amongst the flags!
Dang! I really thought I would be the first to notice the cat! 🐈⬛🙀
5:15 U~~CHUU~~ SEN~~KAN~~ YA~~MA~~TO~~! * Epic music begins to play *
There was a huge blunder here sending it out before the wave motion gun was installed!
Aleksandr Vsailesky sure has a lot of chest candy. Probably got a medal just for showing up at breakfast.
Zhukov had more medals.
They didn't get to eat breakfast all that often, so they got medals instead.
In the red army as an officer, under Stalin during the 1930s, making it through to breakfast was probably an achievement worthy of a medal
The Soviets really loved their chest candy. They may have been godless communists, but they understood that military pomp and regalia was better for Red Army morale then international worker solidarity.
He is wearing a Red Army dress uniform tunic in "sea green". It was the same colour as a dress uniform in the Tsarist army called "Tsar's green" but for political reasons the colour's name was changed. Postwar, a double-breasted service uniform tunic was adopted in khaki that made it easier to wear large numbers of medals. In 1984 I actually saw Soviet WW2 veterans wearing it with their medals, although others did the same while wearing civilian suit jackets. Some were rather shabbily dressed, but their medals were well-polished and gleamed in the sunlight.
With the start of the Battle of Okinawa, this week may be a good time to watch the 2016 film *Hacksaw Ridge* , which tells of the experiences of US Army combat medic Desmond Doss during his time there in the battle unarmed due to his status as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.
This may also be a good time to watch Part Nine, “Okinawa”, of the 2010 HBO miniseries *The Pacific* , with Eugene Sledge and Shelton being rather cynical towards the Japanese by this stage of the Pacific War during the Battle of Okinawa. The use of human shields by the Japanese is also shown in this episode.
It may also be worth watching the 2005 Japanese film *Yamato* , depicting the lives of the crew of the battleship Yamato as it eventually goes to its demise during Operation Ten-Go on April 7 1945.
A British officer in Burma stated that the bravest men he had ever seen were US conscientious objectors serving as medics.
@@grahvis There were British conscientious objectors who served in North Africa. They worked with the Friends Ambulance Service, and by all accounts acquitted themselves extremely well.
In the timeline of Call of Duty World At War, USMC Sgt Roebuck, Private Polansky and Private Miller, veterans of Peleliu, will soon be in the thick of the action on Okinawa. On the Eastern Front, Sgt Victor Reznov and Private Dimitri Petrenko, veterans of Stalingrad, will soon be reunited as they push on Berlin.
I hate it when gamers bring games into history.
Well like it or not, games are what got many of us into history to begin with. I don't pretend to know everything about it because I play games, but its no different to how people got into it by reading Commando comics or watching classic war films like the Great Escape. @@mitchellsmith4690
Shout out to Indy, Spartacus and all the members of Time Ghost who bring us this series. I would also like to give a shout out to all the VIEWERS as well for doing your part in helping keep these guys memories alive. As an Army veteran myself I often get very frustrated because I feel that the younger generations including my own (Millennial) couldn't care less about what it really took to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today. This channel, and viewers like YOU, are proof that there are still people in this world who still care.
Thanks a lot for your kind words, Sir! -TimeGhost Ambassador
A very moving tribute from a son to a father and his compatriots imo.
Thank you Tom ❤
The action at around 05:00 at the continent of Australia is paw-some ...
Good video ... as usual!
My father was wounded 3 times at Iwo Jima. He was in Guam recovering. He was told that even with 3 bullet wounds he would be involved in the invasion of Japan. He was not happy about that. That was the plan until the bombs dropped.
What bombs? 🤫
@@grlt23 The atomic bombs?
Well it was the plan until the Red Army joined the party.
@@davidwright7193 Knowing that myself. The thinking at the time and still today. The common thinking at the time was the dropping of the Atomic Bombs was the end. Even though the Gov. Japan was numb to the destruction of their cities. They were terrified of the Russians.
@@bitemenow609: Gee, you think BOTH of these factors may have contributed? People that were actually there and were involved do.
The Axis, however, have not make use yet of their biggest secret weapon, hinted at 5:00 in this very same video...
One like for the cat @5:00
Brilliant episode and fascinating as every.
I was a little excited when you mentioned the 29th regiment of the 6th division of the Marines. I was hoping to hear more about my Dad's unit, he was in the first battalion of the 29th. I hope to hear more about their northern sweep and their trip south to reinforce the Army in the south and west. The advance on Sugar Loaf and Naha city.
Thank you for all your hard work and dedication. The Time Ghost team are modern heroes for these videos.
Great memorial finale this week. Superb, riveting and a really good overview of this closing year of the war.
You've maintained a very high quality throughout. Thank you for this detailed and thoughtful work.There is nothing like it anywhere.
Glad you are enjoying the series, thanks for watching!
It looks like my suggestion a week ago was heard. I really do appreciate the fact that it looks as if you shifted something on the set and I can now catch a glimpse of the shrinking German territory behind Indy. With the whole war to cover, it's nice to see that you guys do hear the audience you have for your terrific series (that I have followed for the last 293 weeks). Thank you!!
I love the fact that your cat roams freely during filming. Adorable.
As everyone knows, the Soviet Union sent forces to Okinawa to assist, namely Nikolai Bazarin's Fifth Shark Army. Very useful indeed to have surrounding Japan.
The way you ended this broadcast was truly moving....as the conflict moves towards it's end... time to reflect on those who would never return home...
That was a very touching last segment Indy, Thank you
This program just keeps getting more and more solid. Great presentation, as always.
Unfortunately, I do not know much other than this, but my great grandfather on my mother's side died around this time on the eastern front. Apparently they never found out where and he never had a funeral, I never knew my great grandmother but even if I did I'm not certain I'd have the courage to ask about that time in germany.
I knew a guy who was in the R N and he was on the carrier that saw a kamikaze bounce off the deck.
Brilliant narration as always👍👍
As I watch these episodes on the battles for the Japanese islands, it always makes me grateful as Aussie for the USA in WW2. Aussie’s forget that though we did the bulk of the fighting from 42 to early 44 in New Guinea, while the USA mobilised, there is no way we would’ve lasted then, or to push the Japanese all the way back without the USA.
Great tribute! Long live the memory of Tom and Tippy and all their brothers in arms
This episode is one I've been waiting for, my Grandmother lived in Okinawa during the war. When I was young, she told me of the sky lighting up and the earth around her shaking violently. When I was 9, I went with her to Okinawa and one of the places we visited is one of the small caves she and her family stayed in during the battle. Not far away was the location where her father was shot and killed as he tried to bring food back to the cave. She passed away 2 years ago and I am sad to say that she never told me stories of the war ever again after that visit, the rest had to be pieced together by talking with the rest of the family. Thank you to the entire team for bringing so much knowledge about this time to all of us.
Thank you for your comment!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
My dad, Patrick Henry McLaughlin was with the Rhodesian Armed Cars which worked with Pappa Britts and the SA Division in El Alamien. Like Tom's dad, my dad was also wounded in Italy. His tank was hit at Monte Cassino. He returned to Rhodesia where he met and married my mom. A picture of him sitting atop his Sherman is shown in the book "The Desert Rats."
By the end of March, 1st Canadian Corps had reunited with the 1st Canadian Army. British 1st Corps who had been serving with the Canadian Army since the Normandy campaign, returned to the British 2nd Army. This week the reunited Canadians advance north into Holland on a 2 corps front. The Germans had a garrison of some 120,000 men in the Netherlands, including remnants of the elite First Parachute Army. Montgomery ordered the Canadians to clear them out with the objective to open up the supply route to the north through Arnhem, and then to operate to clear Northeast Holland, the coastal belt eastwards to the Elbe, and West Holland. Vokes' 4th Armoured Division crossed the Twente Canal, capturing Amelo on April 5th.
And Britain's job?
Amazing storytelling as always Sir!
Thank you Tom!
The ghost of the Iron Curtain seems to materialise more and more every week.
Stalin was always very suspicious, he trusted no one, hence all the purges. He didn't believe it when given the date of the original German invasion.
I'm surprised you didn't report on the Kaiju attack on Australia and New Zealand!
13:50 12th army walther wenck moving trough the harz mountains, only to be send to help steiner in berlin..
It was a paper army anyway. Barely above Steiner's ghost army group.
They die twice when we forget their names.
Excellent, as always!
The Soviets: Why would the allies deceive us about their plans with Italy?
Also the Soviets: Ok so we're gonna deceive the allies about our plans with Germany.
Well done to all of you producing this beautiful and educational series. Thanks seems to weak a word for all I've learned watching it. God bless.
We appreciate the comment, thanks for watching!
If i remember correctly O5 stands for Oe or Ö the first Letter of the German Name of Austria (Österreich). This Name was illegal in the Reich. Resistance members calling themselves after their lost country and it's illegal name is smth. Famously the O5 letters are engraved in St. Stephans Cathedral.