Week 290 - Smiling Albert Takes Command - WW2 - March 16, 1945
Vložit
- čas přidán 15. 03. 2024
- After the Allies took a Rhine Bridge last week, Adolf Hitler has again shuffled his commanders, moving Kesselring to the west. Meanwhile, the German offensive in Hungary comes to its end- and it does not end well for the Germans. The Japanese are nearly defeated Iwo Jima, are feeling a bit of desperation in Burma, but are far, far from defeated on Luzon.
01:02 Recap
01:33 Remagen Bridge and the Western Front
06:44 Army Group Courland and 3rd Belorussian Front
10:23 Konev's new attacks
11:29 Operation Spring Awakening Ends
15:00 A German surrender in Italy?
17:01 Japanese being ground down on Iwo Jima
18:12 The War in the Philippines
20:48 the War in Burma
23:07 Summary
23:36 Conclusion
Join us on Patreon: / timeghosthistory
Or join the TimeGhost Army directly at: timeghost.tv/signup/
Check out our TimeGhost History CZcams channel: / timeghost
Between 2 Wars: • Between 2 Wars
Follow WW2 Day by Day on Instagram: @ww2_day_by_day
Follow TimeGhost History on Instagram: @timeghosthistory
Like us on Facebook: / timeghosthistory
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 & James Newman
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:
Mikołaj Uchman
Simon J. James
Source literature list: bit.ly/SourcesWW2
Archive footage: Screenocean/Reuters - www.screenocean.com
Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
Breathe it in Deep - Hampus Naeselius
Dark Seas - Michael Rothery
End of an Era
For Humanity - Bonnie Grace
Power Up - Phoenix Tail
Additional sound effects provided by Zapsplat.com
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
The TimeGhost Army is the pillar that holds us up, turning this project into reality.
Join the TimeGhost Army Today: www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Was very pleased with this episode. As ever, accurate and well put together!! Keep up the good work!! ❤
Why are you calling Albert Kesselring "Smiling Albert Kesselring" ?
@@Suchtel10 I guess he was always happy, maybe?
Can I ask why the chat section was switched off please?....
@@jakobrebeki has it? It hasn't as far as I can tell.
there's so much in 1945 that we never hear about in typical documentaries.....this series is outstanding
Yes!
Much appreciated, thanks for the comment!
We really are re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic, huh?
Indeed it is -TimeGhost Ambassador
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Yamato soon.
Maybe I haven't scrolled down far enough, but it's not hard to predict a steady rise in Felix Steiner jokes.
A rather peculiar sidenote this week on March 11 1945 is that the first unexploded V-2 rocket will land in England in the United Kingdom. However, it would not be retrieved and studied until 7 April, by which time other unexploded V-2 rockets had also been found and many secrets of the rocket had already been uncovered.
I commented on this in the v-2 special, one of those got shipped to australia and is in storage at the war memorial museum (the storage place has an open day every couple years to see all the piles of stuff). the inside of the frame is all chicken wire and plywood, I'm assuming it's all they had left to build the things by march/april 1945
test
Very interesting. Thanks@@pnutz_2
How the fuck did it not explode.
Sabotage is one possibility.
One thing that will never change. Smiling Albert Kesselring will never stop smiling. Is he the meme commander of WWII like Hoetzendorf was for the Great War? Also an interesting note out of the siege of Budapest. Sepp Dietrich was quoted as saying "We are called 6 Panzer army because we only have 6 panzers left."
Yeah but Kesselring is actually a capable commander, unlike Hoetzendorf
Never underestimate the power of weaponized facial hair.
He thinks the show must go on
@@NuclearBunker25true that but more brutal.
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 Don't forget Semyon Budyonny in your list!
The delusion that Germany would ever be able to retake lost territory, has to have cost Germany tens of thousands of lives of both civilians and soldiers.
It makes one wonder if they were high on narcotics when looking at the situation.
Wait a minute...
@@buschacha We know the top guy was.
Meanwhile, the top guy is waiting on Steiner's counter attack.
Same with Ukraine now
@@SiegfriedDerDrachentoter ukraine has liberated 50 percent of the territory russia once occupied, russian millbloggers are offing themselves because of the inane casualty numbers in avdiivka. and like 10-20 percent of russian oil refining capability has been taken out in like the past week. but yah bro its so over for ukraine
I think that this was just an excuse to protect civilians.
Only six weeks about and the guy with funny mustache bites the dust, boy the time flies...
Hey you really should warn people before major spoilers like that!
Damn, I didn't know Charlie Chaplin had only weeks to live.
@@JonnoHR31I know! I thought he was still alive! My day just got way better though.
I hear that he and Eva have a great Honeymoon planned.
No spoilers please!!
It's that time of the war when the phrase, "Human Landmines" gets used like a normal thing you talk about in modern war.
My Uncle Pete served in Italy at this time. He was decorated for capturing a German machine gun nest and taking three prisoners. Listening to his war stories over the Thanksgiving table years later, there's no way in heck that I can believe Italy was a sideshow.
My Dad was an anti-aircraft artillery gunner thru Northern Europe. He always said he was glad not to have fought in Italy. Doubly glad he wasn't sent to fight in the Pacific theater!
A horrible one for sure.
My grandfather immigrated from Sicily with his parents when he was a little kid. He saw it next during the war when he was part of the invasion force. Of all the stories of the war he told none were as memorable as the time he and another soldier stopped a drunken Marine from the Deep South from committing sexual assault against a local *donkey* 😅
Well into his old age, if he ever argued with a southerner he would call them a "donkey f-----!" He's been gone for over 20 years, and I still miss that crazy old Sicilian
Yeah, Italy gets overlooked far too much in its strategic importance to Germany: Northern Italy kept the German Army fed as it got pushed from Eastern Europe and France, and Switzerland offered safe passage for the industrialized goods produced there, which could then be sent to southern Germany or Austria.
Without constant pressure in Italy, it's entirely possible that Hitler would be able to retreat from Berlin to a well-equipped, well-provisioned force in the Alps, dragging the war on. Instead, most of the material being made there had to be spent defending Italy.
@@bubbasbigblast8563huh
Your end comment was just spot on, Indy!
"In modern war, there is no such thing as a side show."
Love to see you guys truly understanding the topic and bringing it to a wider audience. 🙂
While I agree on the semantics that every dead soldier is valuable, its simply a fact that, at least from the german point of view, everythingwas a sideshow compared to the eastern front. All other fronts during the entire war combined vs the eastern front had a dead german soldier ratio of 1: 3.4....70% of all german soldiers ddied fighting the soviets.
However that should not negate the importance of some sideshow frontlines for the war in other areas like economic warfare (losing france was, for example, a catastrophy for the german war industry and food supply. France supplied more food to Germany then the entire occupied soviet union at the greatest extend of german occupation for example)
While most German soldiers died in the Eastern front, you can't deny that the camapigns in North Africa, Italy and Western Europe absolutely took a toll on them too, albeit more due to mass surrenders and losses to POWs. Over 300,000 troops surrendered in Tunisia alone, an impressive amount of losses. Indy even mentioned it earlier in the video how many German units were nonexistant in Western Europe due to losses to POWs
@@extrahistory8956 To tack on to the above, most of the Luftwaffe was committed against the Western Allies for most of the war due to their bombing campaign over Germany. Not coincidentally the majority of the Luftwaffe's losses in planes and pilots were also against the Western Allies, rather than the Soviets. Germany was also forced to conentrate most of it's anti-aircraft in "defense of the Reich" which left it's ground forces on the Eastern front without adequate anti-aircraft protection.
All of that enabled Soviet successes in the east.
@@ahorsewithnoname773 It certainly helped but the fact that millions of Soviet troops were fighting the Germans is the primary reason.
the desert was nothing like the other campaigns,sure the climate was bad.But in Europe and the East the HEER were much better supplied and reinforced
My Uncle on my mother's side was a medic in the Philippines. I don't know which island he was on but, when the fighting was over, he was only one of the few medically trained people in the area. He began to treat civilians and even delivered a few babies. A few of the boy babies were named Grafton after his first name. I wonder if any of them are still alive.
And there is a Paul Grafton Domingo, but I don't know if that is a middle name or surname.
I’m glad this series exists to raise awareness of the Burma front. It gets overlooked quite a lot.
Yes, and it also helped me to have a clearer insight on the last offensives on the East Front. My knowledge didn't go much further than the retaking of the Krim, Kiev, stopping in front of Warsaw during the oprising, the Courland pocket, and suddenly the Red Army is entering Berlin.
6:45 "I must go, my people need me"
*A slide whistle plays as Von Veitinghoff gets a xfer to Italy*
Note: Von Veitinghoff died on his way back to Italy
One thing that has gone a bit unreported is the expansion of the united states submarine war against japan. Since the Mark 14 torpedo was fixed and now with bases within easy patrol range of us submarines, the japanese home islands have been nearly completely cut off. It is to the point where the japanese merchant fleet no longer even attempts to leave port because they are attacked by subs.
This is creating a wide spread food shortage on the home islands that looks to quickly get worse.
Are we at the point yet where US ships sail right up to the Japanese coast and shell their harbors with naval gunfire? Japan had food shortages as far back as the 1930's that their invasions were supposed to address but never did, conditions on the mainland must be hellish by now.
@@Raskolnikov70that's a bit later in the summer. Next month we get the aerial mining of Japanese coastal waters (with the incredibly on-the-nose name of Operation Starvation), which probably would have ended the war by itself if it had come earlier.
Meh. Operation Starvation had easily blockaded Japanese ports with almost 0 losses.
@@chazzerman286 Suggested reading, "Hellcats" by Peter Sasgen.
I live in Brisbane Australia, it was a major US sub base during the war.
Great episode as always! I lost an uncle on Iwo Jima to a Japanese sniper, another uncle who flew a B-24 Liberator, a cousin in France who landed on D-Day and died 4 days later, and an uncle who was wounded and set home from the Italian Front. All these episodes mean a lot to me!
"Smiling Albert" may just be Indy's greatest contribution to historiography 😅
What do you mean? Indy didn't coin the term, it's literally just a thing Kesselring was called.
@@pakkazull8370 i didn't know that. Thanks
My father was in the 71st ID. He was a 60mm mortar-man. His baptism of fire was in the city of "Bitche". Non-stop combat until VE Day when the 71st was in Linz, Austria. He spoke pretty good German and French. Save a lot of lives. Never talked about the fighting, just the funny, weird stuff that happens during any war.
Smiling Albert, more like Internally Crying Albert, amirite fellas...
More like brutal Albert.
I imagine he's at least cringing at this point of the war.
Hide-the-pain Albert
Whatever-it-s-folded-in-a-few-weeks-anyway-Albert
😂😂😂
There was a song "The D-Day Dodgers," sung to the tune of "Lili Marlene." It satirised the popular notion that the British Army in Italy, has drawn the soft option.
I'd say that the winter campaign for the Gustav Line and Monte Cassino were even more bitter then the Normandy campaign. If only because the terrain favored the defenders even more and the winter made it even worse.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623Definitely.
I remember hearing that song sung on one of the late Richard Holmes documentaries about Italy. “They earned their Italy Stars the hard way”
Always the best WW2 show on the Web. And Indie is a premium dramatist.
Thanks for watching!
This week there's also the bombing of Kobe, which is shown in the opening of the 1988 movie Grave of the Fireflies
Also Osaka.
@@user-vo8ep8jz8c I watched _Azumanga Daioh_ too many times that my brain has just correlated Osaka to the nickname given to one of the characters there
that movie will wreck you
Thanks for the tip on what sounds like an interesting film, going to be searching for Grave of the Fireflies online.
@@ndogg20it's gut wrenching.
man i really love the 'you are' starts because they put into context what an impossible task it was
Tak! For the info about WW2 I didn't know. Keep it going to the bitter end...
Thank you so much!
Bitter end is right. It seems as the closer the end of the war gets, the more brutal and bloody it becomes.
If this war ever ends, can we get a compilation of Indy saying such classics as "you, are adolf hitler/josef stalin/Churchill", etc? :D They're actually hilarious when taken out of context :D
Another sidenote this week on March 13 1945 is that the British Secretary of State for War Sir, James Grigg, will praise the achievements of the British Army over the previous months in a statement to the British Parliament. However, he would announce that it would become necessary for another call up of men from civilian life (including from those previously in reserved occupations) for military service, in order to continue the war against Japan once Germany has been defeated.
test
The UK really suffered from crippling manpower shortages by 1945. Already in late 1944 after Normandy divisions had to be disbanded to keep the others up to full strength, especially one home defense division after the other was disbanded, but also frontline divisions like the 59th Staffordshire in North Western Europe and 1st Armored in Italy were disbanded. Slim also writes in his memoirs that his British battalions in 14th Army were increasingly becoming understrength by late 1944 and that more Indian troops had to raised to take over.
Now you know why the Yanks dropped the 2 a bombs on Japan they were hoping like hell it would bring the war to an end and it did
@@evangiles4403 It was the Soviet Union rolling up the Manchukuo Army that did that. Truman just wanted the bombs to go bang before their best before date.
And in what history book did you read this@@Turnipstalk
"Let's fly suicide missions into the bridge!"
"What, that's moronic, completely impractical."
*Meanwhile in Japan...*
I love the “Hello darlings” cameo. Man, the repercussions of failure for the Nazis was a bit harsh.
It's such a shame to me, I find spies and ties completely unwatchable because Astrid is so incredibly condescending. I think it would be a great show for a primary school series the way they put that down. The topics they cover are great, just like everything else on the channel, but the tone is just so off.
@@ainumahtar I agree in that it's somehow hard to watch for me as well.
This has become a must watch for me. The weekly perspective is brilliant, and the production level keeps improving. All of the associated shows are also really interesting, and it grants me a great perspective on the greatest dramatic opera of the 20th century. Humans being savage in an attempt to control and dominate other humans.
I imagine an orangutan advanced civilization would be more...mellow, and tree oriented.
Have you ever seen orangutans attack, kill and eat bonobos? All creatures are savage, we're just better at it than most.
5:01 at last, we see the smile
The Mighty Smile -TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo "you see, that's where the trouble began. that smile, that damned smile..."
Kesselring did a phenomenal job in Italy. IMO he is one of the most underated generals in WW2
Nah, its Richard'O Connor of Operation Compass fame
He took unbelievable risk and succeed, a risk of similar level to Rommel's punch to the Ardennes
Kesselring has been helped by excellent defensive terrain. Still, he deserves praise for containing successfully the Anzio landing.
Kesselring's sucess is actually due to Allied strategists in Combined Chiefs of Staff at Washington stripping Italian Theater and 15th Army Group of Alexander everything vital from reinforcements to shipping to landing craft and diversion of already deployed Allied divisionsin Italy to other theaters like Southern France and Greece in latter half of 1944. If seven Allied divisions taken from Italy to land Southern France for Operation Dragoon in August 1944 , were instead kept in Italy to breach Gothic Line or enough landing craft were spared for Anzio landings in January 1944 , 15th Army Group would reach to Po Valley and Austrian Alps , libeating Northn Italy before 1944-45 Christmas. Allied priorties or strategic mistakes or diversion of resources made Kesselring seem better soldier than hge actually was. Kesselring also presided total Axis rout and mass surrender in Tunisia 1943 as Axia Theater Commander , failed to subjugate Malta while sending false over optimistic reports to Berlin that Malta is out of action in 1942 and forbidden to retreat from Gustav Line south of Rome till last moment , incrteasing the rate of German casaulties after Allies breached the line in May 1944.
Merdy - what a good little fauntleroy fanbois you are full of your little Islands place in the Big Picture. This buffoonery belonged to the Churchill who was the reason Monty got headlines. Had the drunk not got involved in O'Connor or Aukinleck's business we'd never heard of the turd bernard.Britain praises it's frauds and forgets it's heroes. Actually Winston had to hide the fact his mettling led to disasters so he pumped up bernard beyond either abilities or accomplishments warrented
FDR got suckered into the toffee nosed bastard Winston's farcial soft underbelly bellowings.Winstion worried about an atlatic wall that was no where near complete even on june 6.But thought it was a fetching Idea to go over the alps - last done by hannibal 2250 yrs ago.Marshall should have told the malingering inebriant it took 4 months to just take 1700 ft.Monte Cassino The GIs alone could have made Normandy by then - given we didn't share our landing craft and fuel to the ill advised Imperial interests in the Med - a simple little side show
No wonder they had strategic reversals and British forces had been "evacuated" from:
Norway,Netherlands, Belgium and France,Dunkirk in 1940
-Greece, Crete,Hong Kong and Libya in 1941
-Tobruk and Dieppe,Singapore in 1942
Funny much of their curbsrompings stopped after a Worl Power got involved
I've noticed all through this series you have various books in front of you, when this war finishes would it be possible to list the books & the screen quote sources for further reading?
“Allied commanders were always convinced that just one more push would make the whole front crumble, and tens of thousands of men on both sides would die proving them wrong.”
Luigi Cadorna: *ah, yes, the song of my people.*
Cadorna on his way to launch the 113th Battle of the Isonzo River:
I hope you will speak to an event on Iwo Jima that occurred some weeks after the battle. Many years ago I read an article relating a Japanese attack by survivors who had rallied in tunnels and caves. It was a relatively small force and did not fare well but was quite the surprise to the US garrison.
There are episodes on YT about the tunnels. Currently Kuraboyashi's HQ has accumulated a large cache of Johnny Walker. The tunnels are hellish even without the war.
Thanks for a great premiere! The tension is almost at breaking point.
Thank you!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo Congrats on getting the ambassador gig!
Oops, missed the premiere. My bad! Excellent episode team!
Both Italy and Burma are often considered sideshow here in England. A big thank you to the Time Ghost Army for setting the record straight 💓👍
We all know what we want after the WWII series come to end:
The 100 years war - week by week!
I love whenever Indy asks a question and then says "I'm glad you asked!"
Thank you for the lesson.
Much appreciated, thanks for watching!
@@WorldWarTwo Question.
How do I send you a picture of some WW2 memoribilia?
I have the STARS AND STRIPES newspaper announcing the end of the war in Europe.
And in Tiduiote,PA
The bridge in this small pa town have been used over the years to react this week of taking of this bridge in 1945. I live only 40 miles from this bridge
Great job as always!!!
My home city appeared on the map. Greetings from Wesel.
Greetings!
Hey Indy and or TimeGhost crew, I love reading and collecting ww2 books and I've always been curious about those books you have open on your desk. Any chance you could share the titles? Love the show and your dedication as always!
Good Work!! ❤
This week in French news.
The 11th of March, Emperor of Annam and Tonkin proclaims its independence with the name of Emperor of Vietnam, it is however an empty state as all the bureaucracy is destroyed, and the Japanese are the only one in charge.
The 12th, Darnand arrives with 250 miliciens in Milan for anti-Partisan missions.
The 13th, the King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk proclaims its independence with the formal asking from Japan. He renames his country Kampuchea and Japan opens a consulate. Sihanouk removes all treaty with the French Republic while making others with Japan. He abolishes the romanization of Khmer and restores the lunar calendar. He does enter the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere but does not collaborate more with Japan (sending troops or helping economically). On the opposite, the Kingdom of Laos, protectorate of France, refuses to bend to the Japanese. This is because the front is closer, that the King is pro-French (the country put itself under French protection against Chinese pirates and Siam’s expansionism) and that the colonizer really helped develop the country especially in the Education matter.
The French administrators must be “imprisoned” (they are put under house arrest and keep having contact with the outside freely). His Prime Minister, Phetsarath Rattanavongsa, however is anti-French and nationalist and wants to follow Japan and proclaim independence. A guerilla Franco-Lao emerges with about 200 French and 300 Lao with almost no weapon but with the support of the population and the king but also of the Hmongs (who were anti-French until the French stopped marginalizing them in 1920 and gave them autonomy to plant opium).
The 15th, the High Court of Justice gives its first verdict, it condemns Admiral Estéva, General Resident in Tunisia in November 1942 where he followed Vichy’s order and let the German occupy the Protectorate without any concession.
The 16th, King of Luang Pragang Sisavang Vong refuses to cooperate with the Japanese and invites the Lao people to support the Allies and the French. He must however imprison the French presents there. He is opposed for his stance by his brother-in-law and prime minister Phetsarath Rattanavongsa .
Thanks for the news, Monsieur! -TimeGhost Ambassador
Thanks! I had no idea what was happening in the region during this period. Please post more details.
I'm sick right now but this is making me feel better
Very good WWII presentation, Thank You.
You are very welcome and thank you!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
After all this time Albert finally cracked a smile.
Another great episode
Thanks for watching!
I really hope that in the coming weeks you will quote Antony Beevors "Berlin 1945". I really enjoye his work and I musst say that I am a bit disappointed that you haven't quoted him yet.
I enjoy Beevor's books... sometimes. I thought Crete was quite good, and Berlin 1945- which I have not read- gets positive reviews from people like David Glantz, whom I respect immensely. However, most of those same reviews also say that he doesn't add any new actual information to the narrative, though he does present it in a compelling manner. I can't say I won't quote him in this series, but considering we're filming the late April and early May episodes of the series starting in 9 days, it's unlikely that I will. But I will get a copy and see if I have time to dig into it and decide what I think for myself. I do plan on presenting it in a compelling manner, in any case, though.
I second this, I think Berlin 1945 is definitely worth a read and a quote or two for the final episodes on the European theatres
Well, whatever anyone thinks of anyone’s books, the point of me quoting anything in this series is either to present information that is new to the canon- to specify the source- or something i think is better worded than I myself would do.
Concerning the eastern front in 1945, John Erickson and Earl Zienke often fit the bill for one or the other.
Concerning Beevor- I have nothing against solid popular history, which he most often is, and I’ll say again that Crete was excellent. I quoted that several times because it had information that was new to me and that I hadn’t found elsewhere, but which turned out to be rock solid, so the purpose of those quotes was to let people know where this info was from that was new to me.
If the reviews of Berlin 1945 are correct, then it is a gripping read that doesn’t add any new information to the canon. Again, nothing wrong with that.
But those who wish me to quote it- what sort of stuff is it that you are impressed with? The numbers, the troops movements, the actions- because they’re in all sources more or less. Is it just the language or what? Very curious.
@@Southsideindy Well, I am not something like an amateur historian or something. I am just a guy that REALLY loves history and when I see an interesting history book in the store or I hear people talking about a specific book, I read it. And Beevors were always one of my favorite and Berlin was his first book I read. So I didn't know that he didn't ad anything new to the topic (that you quoted him during the Crete episodes, I musst have forgotten). He is just one of my favorite historian, and I am not mad at all that you haven't included him in your episodes as much as I wished. I just wanted to ad a little topic for discussion for us history lovers.
Really love your work ;)
With the situation Germany is facing in the west, better make that nickname "Rictus-Smiling Albert." Another great episode, TGA. Looking forward to next week!
So wild to imagine the wide open front in in Europe and take that into the stark contrast to Iwo Jima and Peleliu, especially when you imagine how the combat was still as brutal, if not even more brutal in those areas.
Well done and thank you
Thanks for watching!
"And so it goes." Is that a Vonnegut quote?
Yep, from 'Slaughterhouse Five'. Very apropos around this date and time.
Thank you.
And thank you too for watching!
Check out the Japanese movie Fires on the Plain, set in the Philippines at the end of the battle.
Tell the hospital to stop sending you back!!
It's interesting that after 43 Stalin, despite well earned reputation for ruthlessness, began to listen to his best officers and give them a latitude that Hitler never learned to do.
The Soviets are winning, he can afford to be a bit magnanimous now.
Hitler listened to his officers. He followed the Prussian staff tradition that encouraged debate amongst officers and curried differences in opinion. The problem was that Hitler thought he was smarter than all of his generals, and it was his ego that led him to ignore their spoken recommendations and objections prior to committing his biggest strategic and operational mistakes.
The Soviets were winning BECAUSE Stalin began to listen to his generals. By late 1942 he had a corps of generals that he felt he could trust in being capable so he started taking their advice and not push through his own plans against their judgment. And as they delivered victories to him he gave them more latitude to handle the fight the way they wanted too, although he would still set the strategic goals of what to take. With Hitler it was the reverse. He DID listen to his generals in the 1st half of the war, but increasingly they began to suffer defeats. The plan to aim Barbarossa's main goal to a drive towards Moscow came from his generals. Hitler did not want to do that, preferring a main drive on the Ukraine and Caucasus. But he listened to them and they suffered a massive defeat. As they suffered more and more defeats Hitler began to distrust his generals, and it can be argued that he never really trusted the old Prussian officer corps, as they had conspired against him during the Weimar Republic. But it is not that he stopped listening altogether. As generals that Hitler felt he could trust, like Model and Schörner were given much freedom to fight the war they wanted too, including retreats.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 I read the argument that the generals wanted to Moscow and Mr. A. H. wanted to go to Stalingrad, more or less. He only had enough supplies to get to the Dvina/Dnieper line and then he needed to stop, and he didn't.
@@gordybing1727 But does that take into account a full wide 3 pronged access assault or focusing heavily on the southern Ukraine axis and having the other 2 armygroups cover its flanks?
Thanks indy and crew
You are very welcome, thanks for your incredible support.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
On the map it shows pockets of Germans still holding out on the Atlantic wall. I don’t recall Indy ever mentioning them. What French cities on the coast were still in German hands this late?
Saint nazaire
Because they were no significant
He hasnt mentioned the Soviet invasion of Northern Norway.
The Allies bypassed them and they were not willing to surrender. They were surrounded and turned into selfsufficient pow camps.
At this stage in the war these are the Atlantic pockets that remain...
St Nazaire - 30,000 men (surrenders on 11 May, 1945)
Lorient - 24,500 men (surrenders on 10 May, 1945)
Channel Islands - 28,500 men (surrenders 9 May, 1945)
Dunkirk - 10,000 men (surrenders 9 May, 1945)
La Rochelle - 11,500 men (surrenders 9 May, 1945)
Royan - 5,000 men (surrenders 17 April, 1945)
Point de Grave - 3,500 men (surrenders 20 April, 1945)
Ile d'Oleron - 2,000 men (surrenders 30 April, 1945)
Always leaving me hungry for more ...
You'll get it when the Korean War series starts!
I have to see if I have the old military magazine. But the article talks how Konigsberg was a city that fell under seige very fast
Thanks!
Hearing Indy mention my home city gets shivers down my spine.
*Even though he kinda butchered it but I don't mind good job*
Danke!
Thank you very much!
I'm enjoying the series immensely. Looking forward to May, and then August.
I've been sticking with the WW2 series, which I started last year. Might restart that one at '39, or move on to another of your series, but I'll be a fan nonetheless.
Series suggestion: The Manhattan Project, Week by Week. Just a thought..
There is going to be a Korean War Series week by week
Watch from the start. Axis victory seems to be inevitable.
You can't even see the red on the map behind Indy's head anymore.
Nice tie.
I remember reading somewhere that one of the V2s launched at the bridge, one actually did hit something…. A cow in a field by the town
The V2s lacked the accuracy to hit a target as relatively small as a bridge. Their best hope was to disrupt the US build-up.
They fired very many V2s at Antwerp to disrupt the port and supplies to the Allies. There was no disruption.
Someone made a very good point about the V2 in the comments for the Special Episode on it. It was essentially a very expensive artillery piece. It had potential to be sure, and its navigation equipment was very impressive by the standards of the time, but a truly precision weapon it wasn't.
cows are smaller than bridges. May Betsie rest in peace@@stevekaczynski3793
Such a contrast at this point between Stalin and Hitler in command style/strategies... Hitlers is do what i say, no mater what, Stalin is heres what i want to do, get it done how you want it.
Bro hasn't heard of the purges. I get what you mean, their leadership styles near enough swapped at this point
It's easy to have faith in your top commanders when your side is winning.
@@joshjwillway1545 It pretty much swapped after Stalingrad. You could disagree with Stalin about military offensives but as time went by especially in 1944 and later you had to get permission from Hitler about everything.
By late 1942 Stalin felt he had a group of generals he could trust to be both loyal and win him the war. So he began to listen to them and let them fight the way they wanted too, provided they carried out his big strategic plans. Hitler started out listening to his generals, they were after all the fabled Prussian officers. But their failure at Moscow, which was a battle they wanted, not Hitler, and successive failures later on, caused him to lose trust in his generals. And as they got increasingly outgeneraled by their Soviet counterparts he began to sack them and started a carousel of replacements as he looked hard to find generals that he could trust. Like Model and Schörner. Who were given a lot more leeway then postwar myth led us to believe.
Stalin was ultimately more of a pragmatist than Hitler.
Not to worry, Smiling Albert will surely make a breakthrough and turn the tide
"There is no such thing as sideshow in modern war" (24:45) should be written in gold
I remember my father talking about Baugio and San Fernando in the Philippines, but sadly I don't remember much about that area. I am assuming that's where his independent AA battalion (90mm guns, used as artillery) were fighting at in this time frame.
I mentioned my father in the comments on theHollandia invasion episode, his AA battalion coming ashore during the first wave when they were supposed to be in the 3rd wave 😊
The craziest part of seeing these episodes, especially these later ones covering 1945, is you see all this death and destruction, tens of thousands dying daily, for something that is going to be over in just a few months, at least in the European Theater. We are a month away from the battle of Berlin, 6 weeks from Hitler's Death, and only another week after that until VE Day. I wonder if people at that time knew just how soon it would all finally be over.
This late stage of the war is presented as a long bloody grind that seems so senseless since by this point the end should be obvious to everyone. As depressing as it is to see it as history it must have been much worse to have lived through it. No wonder that the anger of the Allied soldiers was so much greater toward the war's end at the thought of having to fight and possibly die in a war who's outcome was all but certain.
It nearly got worse for them. Imagine the relief a GI in Europe must have felt when the war against Germany was over--only to be told they were getting shipped to the Pacific in another month.
@@rrice1705: Band of Brothers covered this quite well.
10:10 Once again I'm surprised how cooperative and conciliatory Stalin could be. ;-)
He can be, when he feels he can trust people. Those generals had to earn his trust the hard way, but after 1942 those commanding Fronts had and they pretty much stayed at their posts from that point on. Also Vasilevski was known to be both capable and non threatening. The perfect general for a paranoid dictator.
@@TurnipstalkStalin knew EXACTLY what Beria was doing. He offed a generation of Red Army generals because he was that paranoid. You think he would let someone control a powerbase even more potentially dangerous to him unchecked? That's why Beria's predecessor was DELETED on Stalin's orders. Stalin knew that Beria was picking up you women, 'graping them', DELETING them and burying them in his garden. Why do you think he got so upset when he saw his own daughter sitting on Beria's lap? Beria got his orders from Stalin telling him who to arrest, extract confessions and to meet quotas. Beria survived because he behaved like the perfect toadie to Stalin.
I love this series. If I had gold, I would sponsor you. I send your series my best and will keep watching. Berlin is on the horizon.
Thanks for your kind words. Liking the videos and/or leaving a comment also helps a lot and is truely appreciated.
-TImeGhost Ambassador
I wish i could hear more about the argyll and sutherland highlanders ww2 battels
I know I could look it up, but I won't, looking for the future of Smiling Albert
Also thank you Anna and Astrid 😉
Fascinating times.
It's hard to imagine that this war is in its last year.
1 month till the battle of Berlin!!!!
A plenipotentiary (from the Latin plenus "full" and potens "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers-authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of a sovereign.
To quote MST3K that smile is from the "guys you alert the flight attendant about collection".
Nice introduction
Back in the day on Military History Channel they had a series called The Last Days of WW2 and would replay a lot of the reruns and one of the episodes was always the one when Albert Kesselring was put in command and I can hear the narrator saying it still to this day in my mind lmao. Good memory.
It has been a while since history channels carried actual history programming. I guess more people tune in to pawn shops and theories about aliens.
How about doing Korea special during WW2 years since the series you guys are going to cover next is the Korean War? The Japanese occupation period and numerous political factions inside or outside of Korea, the powers that will be during the Korean War?
"D-Day Dodgers!" Oh my!
Finally make enough money to give you guys aome every month
Thanks for your support!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@WorldWarTwo you guys are great. My kids love the day by day coverage and it has been used in the classroom too
Thats awesome! Thanks for the information and glad your kids love them1 -TimeGhost Ambassador
A slight correction on the Ostrava on your map. Moravská Ostrava has merged with Slezská Ostrava in 1941. Now it's considered a neighborhood of the city, which is Ostrava. So I'm not sure if Moravská Ostrava was specificaly the target (even thought it didn't officially exist anymore) or just Ostrava in general and somebody made a mistake by reffering to Ostrava by the name Moravská Ostrava.
Where ever the enemy was encountered was no sideshow but gruesome brutality.
When the very worst of the worst falls upon him...he is still hanging on.. and smiling...
somehow, I don't think smiling Albert will be smiling much longer...
Watching this while cleaning my 1943 M1 Carbine. Good background
Hello Astrid!
NICE TIE INDY
Hey Time Ghost Army I would love to know what books Indy is reading???
It’s a good series, but can you reposition the background map such that Europe is not blocked?
Wasn't Dulles 'Swiss Director'? i.e., I guess, in charge of the Swiss Desk of SI branch?
You mentioned a couple of dams garrisoned by the Shimbu Group on Luzon - I'm curious, what is the Japanese military's opinion of using dams as weapons? I know there's some themes of building dams specifically to split armies as they cross a river in Eastern texts (an annotation in Sun Tzu, for instance) but that tends to be more in the sword-and-bow era of warfare (and I have no idea how much of an impact Sun Tzu has on Japan in general, let alone at this point in history), so it's very shaky to draw conclusions based on that alone.
Sun Tzu‘s book is so general that it is still applicable today.
@@darth_nihilus_Yes, but assuming the Japanese will breach dams in WWII as a weapon because an annotation to a book from approximately the 3rd century BCE mentions using a dam to split an army attempting a river crossing is a very bold assumption.
Many 20th century armies would not do so due to civilian death toll, the cost of replacing that infrastructure after victory, etc...though WWII is generally a low point for the concept of allowing such things to restrain military actions, and the Japanese in WWII have a broader reputation that suggests the civilian casualties resulting from a dam break would not be an issue to them.
And yeah, just because it's applicable doesn't mean it's had a major impact on a culture's warfare habits. If you compare Sun Tzu's guidelines with classical era European and Mesopotamian warfare, you'll probably note them following a lot of those guidelines when that book was written, and even before, even though the book would not make it to Europe until the silk trade between China and Rome starts up at the earliest.
No fraternizing with German woman. So that's why my grandfather and grandmother were running from the MPs after they got married.