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The video is wrong from the beginning....Hitler didnt wanted Moscow. Hitler wanted the line Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad in order to block any deliveries via this points into SU. Hitler didnt wanted the oil for germany.....Hitler wanted the oil NOT in the hand of Stalin.
@@keinervondaoben720 The U.S.A. was the largest oil producer in the world at the time. Texas oil. If Germany causes the Soviets to raze Baku and Grozny oil fields, all that would do is shift US land lease priorities to the Soviet Union from trucks and shoes to oil.
20:36 Germans had more friends than enemies. Just from head: List of German militant allies: - Italy - Japan - Hungary - Finland - Slovakia - Slovenia - Croatia - Lithuania - Latvia - Estonia - Romania - Bulgaria - Peru - Chile - Argentine - Paraguay - Venezuela - Thailand - France (Vichy) - Norwegians were volounteers to German army, - Dutch were volounteers to Deutsch (German) army - Danes surrendered without fight, and were volounteers to German army - half of Ukraine joined German side, German non-militant friends and supporters during WWII: - Spain - Turkey - Sweden - Switzerland - Iraq - Syria - Iran - Republic of China (nowadays occupies only Taiwan) - Czechs surrendered without fight and were manufacturing tanks for Germans *German full-time, devoted enemies: - Poland - Serbia - Greece - Ethiopia - British Empire - USA - Soviet Union (basically Russia and Belarus only, because Mongolians, Kazakh and Uzbeks gave material support only and others nations inside USSR tried to support Germans)*
@@MarkVrem .....if the Wehrmacht would have controlled the line-Leningrad-Moscow-Stalingrad, plus Murmansk (one of totally two ice-free-harbours of the SU), the logistic possibilities of the SU would have been minimised. All deliveries of the US to the SU would have been vial Wladiwostok. Wladiwostok would have been in the area of japanese possible attacks. The logistic effort to bring all the materials from Wladiwostok to the european theatre would have been 100xtimes more difficult then via Stalingrad or Murmansk....AND the german airforce and army would have much more possibiliies to attack these deliveries before they could be brought to the front.
There's a part 2 to this video as well that I'd also strongly recommend reacting to, so you get to see all his points and clarify on more of the stuff he said in this video.
@@ThirteenthOfFour I’m no longer her Patreon atm because of reasons might come back later so if you want her to do it since you are a Patreon aren’t you? Then you’ll have to recommend part 2 next time possible. Sry just not viable for me atm. If you are a Patreon that is if you aren’t well then this is weird. xD
@@melkor3496 Of course Melkor, I'd love to recommend her part two, I remember it being a interesting video, especially as a companion to this, so I shall do that next, stay safe out there
@@ThirteenthOfFour thanks much appreciated really kind of you I would do it myself but I left as I said might return at a later date but really appreciate that you can recommend her part 2. 😃 I hate seeing things unfinished lol
Saying about Stalin's determination to sacrifice every single person to fight against the Nazis -- Stalin and the rest of USSR citizens did have a reason to be determined to sacrifice their lifes because according to Nazi ideology all ethnic groups of the USSR were considered as sub-huma ns deserving either to die or become slaves, so yes, our grandparents were ready to sacrifice their lifes.
The German goal was to reach the A-A line, from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan. Even the Nazis knew that the German people wasn't numerous enough to cover all the land mass of the USSR. Stopping at that line, they intended to establish German settlements in the European part of the Soviet Union, just like the Americans did on the territory of the so called "Indians". They expected continuing border collisions with the remaining Russian population in Asia, hoping that this would save the Germans from degeneration and maintain their combat readiness. Also Hitler believed that he alone could achieve such a goal and he should begin while he was still strong enough. None of his potential successors would have the determination and ability to do so. That seems to be, what is called "hubris".
@@thkempe Ural mountains line, I guess. Didn't know that Germans intended to establish and maintain border wars. Were they so naive? I thought they were about to establish a great empire and then, gradually conquer the whole world, using military, political and economic power.
@@user-ij5sw7fd6x That was their fantasy sure, but reality hits damn hard even for insane racist facists. Such as having to shut down historical expeditions since they kept finding out that the "superior" Aryans weren't doin much while other mighty cultures rise and fell. That's one reason they were so confident against the soviets, not only due to the prior success against france (which they had failed at in ww1), but because they had already beaten them during ww1. Combine a vast underestimation of their abilities with racist believe in their inferiority, and you get, as the other guy said, "hubris".
16:25 The jet engine was invented in the 1930s by British engineer Frank Whittle but he infamously didn't get support from the RAF, a missed opportunity. Jet engine fighters were deployed by both Britain and Germany during WW2, indeed the Germans even had rocket-powered planes as well. The best known jet fighters of WW2 are Germany's Messerschmitt Me 262 and Britain's Gloster Meteor (which was the only Allied jet aircraft of the war to see frontline service). The Americans did develop the Bell P-59 Airacomet jet during the war with British help, but it never ended up being deployed.
Sometimes an idea strikes people in different countries because there is a need. Things such as the telephone, radio, jet engines & many others have all been researched indepently by people from different countries.
@@untruelie2640 yes but Whittle had the core concepts worked out a couple of years earlier. Britain didn’t invest in the tech as much and was about keeping pace with Germany in development however Britain did have access to the metals needed to make the temperature resistant alloys need to make reliable jet engines in 1944 whereas Germany didn’t and so the British fighters while using a less efficient compressor were faster and more reliable than the German ones. Britain had design requirements out for a jet bomber (eventually the Canberra) but didn’t rush them into the field because they had the Mosquito. In may 44 Britain and Germany have very similar numbers of jet fighter airframes but Germany has them operational and Britain is still testing them, even when a squadron goes “operational” in June they are still kept in a development role learning how to use the aircraft well. By the time they are ready for Europe in Jan 45 there is nothing for them to shoot at. The long term result is that the me262 is out of service by 1948 despite a strong push for export orders post war where as the meteor fights in Korea.
According to Ohain, he was "heavily inspired" by some of Whittle's earlier books and technical diagrams, which were in the library Ohain frequented. One such copy actually has notes scribbled over it.
An officer gave a speech to his men the night before D-day, he said "gentlemen the German today is like the June Bride. He knows he's getting it, but he doesn't know how big it's going to be" 🇬🇧🤝🇩🇪
When he decided to prioritize a push for the oil fields in the South instead of Moscow, it looks like not only was Hitler (95% likely) correct and his generals wrong, but there are also some hints that the generals actually worked behind his back to stall the push south. It wasn't outright insubordination or refusing orders. They were just very pasive-aggressive about it, and they were slower than usual following their orders. Basically, that they just dragged their feet when planning and organizing the push for the oil fields, because they were still hoping to talk him into pushing for Moscow instead. Which, ironically, only served to make Hitler *less* likely to trust them later in the war. The first practical jet aircraft came out in WW2. Both the Germans and the British had their first jet aircraft in service in 1944 (the German Messerschmitt Me 262 in April and the British Gloster Meteor in July, respectively). However, since the Allies already had complete superiority in the air by that point, the British didn't really see their jets as a priority. They literally could produce aircraft faster than Germany could shoot them down. But Germany instead saw them as a wonder-weapon. A game changer that could possibly snatch air superiority from the Allies, and possibly turn the war in their favor. So they invested *a lot* in getting jet fighters produced and deployed. And while jets might have been faster, they were also burning a lot more of that fuel that Germany didn't really have. Also, jets were basically brand new, experimental technology, while propeller aircraft designs had been constantly improved throughout WW2. A first generation jet wasn't always superior to some of the newest propeller aircraft of their time. So, in a sense, Germany was wasting time, manpower and fuel chasing a weapon that they couldn't really *afford* to use.
He actually caught the Soviets by surprise by going south for the Oil fields. The Soviets were expecting and preparing for another attack on Moscow.. So in a way going south also worked for that reason. In the meantime, because the Germans aren't attacking Moscow, they are instead preparing their defenses. So when the Soviets attack Army Group Center with Operation Mars, Germans are well dug in for it. So going south was the right move. They just got overwhelmed there anyways.
@@MarkVrem Exactly. That's part of why he starts to distrust the generals later on. Because he becomes convinced that he was right and he also feels that maybe they wouldn't have been overwhelmed if the generals hadn't stalled.
I once spoke to an old Soviet tank man about Tigers and Panthers. He said they weren't common enough to be a real problem and they had special reserve tanks to deal with Tigers. Generally they just use artillery to kill them or strip them of infantry. Panthers were more common in actual battle but spent so much time away being maintained or repaired they were never seen in real numbers. It was the ambush Tigers and mobile guns they cared about. Which they tried to bypass. The Germans were on the defensive mostly and able to set up ambush points. So they had to learn to predict were these might be and hit them hard before moving up His thought after the war was the Germans just did not move or work together as well as the Soviet Army. Nothing beyond the German frontline seemed to match up with what the Germans at the front were doing. All you had to do was engage them long enough and they ran out of ammunition and pulled back. Generally to the next ammo dump area. When that was used they fell back again or were surrounded.
That is true. Panzer IV was by far most numerous of german tanks, with 8 553 units produced (all variants included) followed by Panther with about 6000 units (It was supposed to replace Panzer IV and work as counter for T-34's). There was only 1347 Tiger I tanks and 489 Tiger II tanks ever produced and coupled with notoriously high maintenance it's far too little to make an impact.
Yeah, that's the same what one Polish People's Army infantry soldier told me. Germans after 1942 had better organization and infantry equipement, but they had very poor tanks and really few of them, and they also had too few oil to fuel them.
One point that always gets ignored in these kind of videos: WHY were the Nazis always short of Oil and rare metals? Sure they had to import them, but so did the British - we had no Oil (at the time). The answer is that the Royal Navy of Britain, with its massive naval superiority, enforced a blockade that strangled the Nazi production. They could not buy and transport it on the open seas. This is why they had to use coal to convert to oil, and why all their military strategy revolved around oil. This is one of the reasons why their jet engines failed regularly - they did not have access to the necessary rare metals. By the way, this naval blockade was a repeat of the one during the 1914 - 18 war that ended up with the German population starving and morale collapsing after the 100 days offensive. As regards Jet engines, Sir Frank Whittle put his patent in first, but was ignored - there are some allegations that Ohain saw this design and that gave him ideas. Britain had the Meteor in service more or less the same time as the 262 (literally the definition of "in service" is the difference). The British engines were much more reliable, the 262 engines were - well - a desperate attempt at a "Wunderwaffe", unstable and short lived, pressed into service because they needed the 262. At that stage of the war, the British didn't even need to commit the Meteor to combat in case one was brought down and the Nazis could examine the engines. The 262 looked cool, and was fast, but the swept wings were more to do with the fact they messed up the center of gravity than any real aerodynamics advances. The engines were rubbish, and the guns poor - two different calibres with different ballistic properties were not ideal.
Suggest reacting to ‘Operation Mincemeat’, a documentary telling the true story of an outlandishly bizarre plan by the British to deceive the Germans at the height of the war. Not only did the deception work, but this idea was suggested by none other than Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond 007. Also, just found out that Warner Bros are releasing a film about this in 2022.
So a remake of the British film then. The evidence for Ian Fleming being the originator of the idea is sketchy at best - he was secretary to the department that came up with it, so certainly knew about it, but to suggest that there is any certainty is stretching things too far. Of course, in hindsight, we know how strong an imagination he had but whether this was the first showing of it or inspiration for it is certainly not known.
Great to see you back! I'm sure none of your patrons have a problem with taking some time off instead of burning yourself out. I certainly don't. You're correct that Germany built the first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, first used in 1944. By that point, however, it was a case of too little, too late. The gas turbine engine itself was, like every other piece of technology, the result of incremental improvements in theory and practice from engineers in France, the UK, and Germany beginning in the 1920s.
hhmmmmmm . . . Built? Started to be built, most likely. The first flight of production aircraft was by Meteor Jan '44 vs 262 March '44. The first production 262s went into service April '44. The Meteor was introduced in July '44. The earliest prottotype flights with engine were July '42 for the 262 and March '43 fpr the Meteor. First 'kills' credited July 1944 for the 262* then August 1944 for the Meteor 4th August 1944 (though many do not count v1 destruction in flight as a kill) So "first" is somewhat of a moving feast as it were. (joke, sorry) * though this is disputed and th formation was more of a trials unnit than an operational unit.
@@brucebartup6161 Come on, Bruce. You're a bad looser. The Germans had the jet plane first, not the British. The Me 262 wasn't the first jet plane in the air. It was the (also German, sorry) He 178 and it already flew in 1939. Btw., in total 1,433 Me 262s were built. That's a little bit more than just a start to build.
@@thkempe Every technical "first" granted to the Nazis is taken as a point justifying their system of government. Think of how apologists all line up behind the Wunder Waffen myths. I grant you the early flights but SoGal's question was about practical jets. |||A n
@@brucebartup6161 If the Germans had it first, they had it first. I prefer history that tells me what has been, rather than what would have been nice. It‘s a matter of facts, not of political correctness and wishful thinking.
The Gloster Meteor entered Squadron service with 616 Squadron RAF on 12th July 1944. The first operational ME 262 unit was Kommando Nowotny which was operational from 3rd October 1944. 262's encountered over Europe before this date were mostly from Erprobungskommando 262 (EK262) which was formed around the same time 616 had received their first aircraft, but was not a fully operational fighter unit, more a semi operational trials unit.
Germany was rich in coal but poor in oil. It spent a lot of money in creating processes to chemically produce oil from coal. This is a very expensive and wasteful endeavour. Without oil the war economy of the Reich was doomed. It needed the Caucasus. But when it got close the Russians set them on fire. They also needed rubber and manganese and these essential commodities were in short supply.
About "Just take Moscow" argument: in the winter 1941 there was a backup HQ for political and military leadership prepared in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) and by the mid winter much of non-essential staff were transferred there (Stalin and the rest of high command delayed their evacuation to the last time for obvious propaganda reasons). So THERE WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that Stalin and USSR just folded after the fall of Moscow. Oh and rejecting science entire science fields on political motives is not exclusively German thing. Soviets rejected genetics, cybernetics and sociology an a basis that they were "capitalistic mumbo-jumbo"
@@090giver090 The Soviets contended some aspects of genetics, but sociology was broadly embraced, more so than in the US recently due to being collectivistic and Marx contributing to development of field, and tried cybernetics via OGAS.
Another problem with the notion of the Soviet Union just collapsing if Moscow, or some other event had happened, is the nature of the war against Russia. Hitler, along with the great majority of his Generals had decided to wage a war of annihilation. Their aim was not to defeat the Soviet Union but to destroy it. Further this war of annihilation was designed right from the beginning, in the planning stages, to involve mass murder on a colossal scale. Soviet prisoners of war were to be shot and starved by the millions, which is what happened, Soviet civilians were to be enslaved, starved to death, shot etc. The initial plan was to starve 20 million to death, deport millions to Siberia, (Where millions would die.), extermination of the intelligentsia, and this was only the beginning. Many more were going to be worked to death, deported etc., and most of European Russia settled by Germans and any remnants of the previous population employed has slaves. Russian cities like Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev etc., etc., were to be wiped off the map. This insanity had the support of most of the German Generals, (Some of whom in the mid 1920s had worked on plans for vast eastern conquests.). The obvious result of all this would be massive resistance; a war to the death in the east. Faced with annihilation in event of a German victory I doubt resistance would have collapsed merely with the taking of Moscow etc. The German objectives in Russia ensured massive popular resistance to the end.
Glad to see you back. Nobody begrudges you taking time off, though it would be good if you could update us on the community tab so we know you're OK. While the message of this video does need saying, I think it can be misleading because it's only obvious in hindsight; plenty of countries have won 'unwinnable' wars just because their opponents had an unrealistic idea of what they were capable of. Indeed it's one reason why Nazi Germany was able to get away with so much in the leadup to WW2: clever propaganda meant people like Chamberlain thought the Luftwaffe was ready to bomb the Allies in the mid-1930s when in reality it barely existed yet. However, one can certainly argue that the Nazis in our history already had plenty of luck of this kind and still got ground down by the realities of logistics and numbers in the end.
Always great to have you back, please, don't apologize for taking out the time for yourself, being a CZcamsr is like being on a fuss, at some point there will be no more rope to burn
Hi, Sarah, its good to have you back. The Messerschmitt ME 262, the Swallow was the first jet fighter to be used in WW2 in the summer of 1944. Between launch and the end of the war they shot down over 500 allied aircraft. The British Gloster Whittle E followed later that year as the allies first jet , although the German plane was faster and more heavily armed. It was much too late to change the course of the war as the video said
The German jet was a copy of the British Frank Whittle jet engine, and though it was the first to fly, it wasn't the first jet and it was also very thirsty. Therefore, it wouldnt have made much difference to the German loss of WW2 as they already didn't have enough supplies of fuel.
When it comes to Japan, they made the strategic decision that their potential access to vital resources lay in the Pacific area rather than in Siberia. Japan, being an island nation, was a considerable naval power and was more confident of their ability to challenge the western Allies at sea than the Soviet Union on land, and at any rate Southeast Asia had more resources readily available than the cold, trackless wastes of Siberia. It was a perfectly rational decision for them not to fight the Soviets.
There's a 4th reason why Germany had no chance of develeoping the atomic bomb before the US, and that's the fact that the British were aware of and greatly concerned by the NAZI nuclear program. Part of the reasonit was abandoned is because it was a priority target for sabotage, even so far as being the reason behind the only military action to take place in norway. As for the French part of their military was evacuated to Britain, and became the Free French Army. Their non european troops were split on wether to follow the Vichy French (nazi pupet government) or the Free French, and a lot surrendered to neighboring British colonies. The French european Navy was sunk in port by the British Royal Navy as they did not respond to a demand to either: surrender, join the Free French, or sail to a neutral port.
The problem with WW2 is that people only tend to focus on what happened from 1939 and not look at what happened before this time. In 1933 Germany renounced it's position on the League of Nations which prevented Germany from increasing its arms and the Germany people were all for this. 1934 they sign a non-aggression pact with Poland, later they would use Polish uniforms bought by Oskar Schindler to claim that Poland attacked Germany and broke their pact so Germany could invade. 1935 Germany regains the coal rich region called Saar from the French, starts their process of rearmament and signs a naval treaty with Britain. 1936 Hitler signs up two allies, through the Rome-Berlin axis agreement with Benito Mussolini and the anti Comintern pact with Japan to oppose communism. 1938, Germany signs the "Anschluss" with Austria and reclaims Sudetenland. 1939 Germany occupies Czechoslovakia and signs an non aggression agreement with Russia. In 1918, there was a peace treaty signed between Finland and Germany, Finland and Austria-Hungary and Finland and Bulgaria which made those 3 countries part of the axis. So Germany had cast their die ready for WW2, and to add more axis powers they sent letters to Canada, Mexico and Spain to join in and fight for Germany in this upcoming war.
Never just say Britain say British Empire because that was resources the British actually had access to. To prove this there was a war game in the 1970's that proved Germany would have lost its entire force if it had managed to land in Southern England. It would have been a slaughter on both sides. But of the two it was Germany that the state might have collapsed and a stripped skeleton of the Germany army fell to up risings in the occupied countries and their "allies" turning on them. Not to mentioned Stalin just waiting for the Capitalist to beat each other near to death before the USSR swept in.
If I remember correctly: the Brits were the first to invent the jet engine. But the Germans had the first combat operational jet fighters: Me 262. The Brits followed with the Gloster Meteor.
Starting a world war in 1941, fighting against both the Sovjet Union and USA was not a very clever decision at the best of times. But when you do so without acces to sufficient oil, it is downright suicidal. That being said it might have helped a lot if Hitler had not underestimated the Sovjet people as "untermenchen" (subhumans). The peasants had ben forcibly collectivised by Stalin in 1928. Had Hitler given them the land back - it might have been Stalin who would have to deal with a huge partisan movement stabbing him in the back. Now the peasants were forced to stay on their collectivesed farms and just deliver even more products than before. And trying to terrorise the population into submission had a similar effect to what the americans recently experienced in Afghanistan.
I mean, he decided to start the war with the Soviet union in 1941 because a) didn't have enough oil for the airplanes and u-boats that would have been needed to blockade Britain into submission and the Soviet Union was the only place he could reliably get it from without relying on neutrals or being blocaded by Britain and b) he was always planning on fightin the Soviets at some point anyway, and he wanted to do it before the Soviets were actually started to industrialize and reform their army to a point such a degree that Germany couldn't keep up anymore. Bof of those problems were true. And both of those problems would have gotten worse with time. That's kinda the whole reason why WW2 was an unwinnable plan from the start.
@@craniusdominus8234 One problem that lost the Axis the war was the Axis mindset. Leaving America alone and just targeting Britain, France and the Netherlands and Japan asking Malaya, Burma and Java for help to stay liberated rather than treating them as slaves could have won Japan the Pacific theatre. Also the Ukranians were delighted to be liberated but were targeted by Germany like the other 'slavs'. Not invading Russia or making an ally of Ukraine could have netted Germany all the Baku and Middle eastern oil and Britain would have to get it all from America. Assuming Germany hadn't won the Battle of Britain (they came very close) and invading the Uk (using air power to neutralise the Royal navy) anyway. On paper the Axis could win, with allies, but they'd have to behave differently to do that, and as fascists, they couldn't.
The great imponderable of WW2 - would Congress have declared war on Germany in December 1941 if Hitler hadn't saved them the trouble ? There was a very strong anti-British sentiment in the US at the time and it would have simplified matters greatly both politically and logistically.
Your comment about Germany's need for oil reminded me that one of the main reasons for Japan's strategy was the same, the grabbing of oilfields. From memory that was also why Japan invaded china - they were doing a resource grab.
The campaign against the USSR was not only about communism, but more about resources: the vast fields around Wolga and Don, the Romania oil fields and the Caspic Sea. General Rommel even fantasized about getting from North Africa via Egypt to Irak and then opening a South Front to the Caspian oil. The war material production in Germany was heavily hampered by the Versailles treaties and the reparations after WW I. The Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar republic, was limited by those treaties to 115.000 soldiers, aircraft production was limited to civil purposes and so on. The Nazis broke these treaties and put a lot of money into arms buildup - but the 6 years until 1939 were far too short for that. Hitler would have even started the war as early as 1937, if his generals had conceded to this. The Barbarossa campaign started mainly with tanks and half-track vehicles looted from the armed forces of Netherlands and Belgium. Germany did have a strong steel industry (at least after French and Belgian occupation forces had left in 1925), but most of the ore had to be imported, and as a whole Germany was still an agricultural oriented country and society. The reorganized armed forces, the Wehrmacht, peaked at 17 Mio. soldiers during the war, but the total number of the German population (including women and children) was less than 79 Mio. 1938 (population 2021: 83 Mio.), so many of the soldiers were either young recruits (drafts started at 17 years) or middle-aged men (even 45 year old men were regularly drafted, and older ones sometimes irregularly, if they were oppositional to the Nazis) which never had a regular military training in the years before the war. At the German-Russian front both sides used lots of horse-drawn carriages during the last years of the war, but the Russians had more horses and more warriors (including women).
I really wonder why the "Just take the capital and win the war" myth is so widespread. If you just look at the Napoleonic wars only France surrendered after the capital was taken and even there it wasn't the only factor. Austria continued fighting in both 1805 and 1809 after Vienna fell, Prussia kept fighting after Berlin fell, Spain kept fighting after Madrid fell several times and Russia kept fighting after Moscow fell.
In 1812 the capital was St Petersburg. However he is right Moscow falls in November 41 and Russia doesn’t surrender and is probably back in control of Moscow by the end of Jan 42.
France consisted of the new occupied government based in Vichy, known as Vichy France and then the "Free French" that consisted of people who fled to the UK, some of the French that got rescued at Dunkirk and most of the French colonies in Africa. The Free French fought to takeover the Vichy French territories, such as Gabon, Syria and Madagascar before taking part in Italy along the UK and the US and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. Symbolically it was the Free French that rode into Paris first.
The Sino Japanese war took place between 1937 and 1945. It is not possible to give much of a summary in a few words here but it is definitely something worthy of being studied more.
There were jets in wwII. The Germans developed the Me. 262. But it was pretty primitive. It's engine's had a lifespan of 22 hours, and needed major servicing every 10 hours, and though it was fast, it was as manoeuvrable as a cow. They also built the rocket powered comet 163, which killed more of its pilots than any allied airmen. The British developed the Gloster Meteor, which entered service with the RAF, but wasn't used against the Germans as 1, they didn't want it falling into enemy hands, 2, conventional aircraft were doing everything that was required in the skies over Germany. It did see action against the V1 flying bombs though, as it had the speed to catch them.
A jet that outperforms its opponents in speed and climb rate as the Me262 did, doesn't need dogfight capability. The initiative is always on the jet's side. It can attack and stop the fight at every moment. A steep turn is only a defensive maneuver.
Another reason Germany didnt win WW2 that is barely ever mentioned is the effort to build up the Kreigsmarine. The Germans gave priority to its Navy in production of ships and submarines. Thousands of men were conscripted to serve at sea and valuable resources went in to ship production. Had those been used to benefit the Army instead of the Navy, Hitler might just have captured those southern oil deposits he desperately needed. As it was the German Navy was never able to match the Royal Navy, which with American & Canadian help won the Battle of the Atlantic, and ceased to be a real threat to the Allies by D Day.
15:30 Fascists can win no war by technology. The disdain of real science is a characteristic of fascism (and most other totalitarian ideologies) - only thoughts are allowed which fit into the ideology. The Nazis forced many of the best German scientists and engineers into exile, and kept some opportunists with fantastical ideas, but without the means to realize them. The Nazis preferred strong, bullying designs over intelligent, efficient ones - see the Maus designed by Porsche or the Elefant/Ferdinand (also designed by Porsche). These heavy tanks were planned to go into action at the Russian front, but there were no streets and bridges strong enough to support them. And they had the first military jets, but could not decide which design to use, so they built a lot of prototypes, but only a handful of real fighter aircrafts (the Messerschmidt Me 262, 1433 aircrafts built 1943-1945, 1039 jets put to service, 200 damaged afterwards, 727 lost, but only 232 of that number by enemy action, 264 left at April 10th 1945. Due to shortage of aluminium the last ones used wooden parts for replacement).
I think Germany was the 5th country to build a jet engine ,But the first to get a jet fighter into service .England ,Italy ,France and America all had the jet engine first not necessarily in that order .
As pointed out by some histoians, just thinnking about it in a sober and analytic way, there is no way the soviet union would have given up just because their capital would be taken. The only major country in recent history that comes to mind where that worked was France. (in the franco prussian war and WW2) But no one else. Even the holy roman empire did not back down when vienna was taken in earlier times. Nor would have germany themselves if just the capital would have been taken. So to me it is a mystery why the people who were of that opinion in the german command structure could even think that about the USSR. And about the atomic program: i don't know if that was a consideration, but i could imagine that the whole reason for expansion and gaining living space is contrary to use a nuke. If you nuke an area, it's not that good to live in after that.
Of course they could win. One thing that cost them was domestic politics related to economic production, as it wasn’t until 1943 or so that they started devoting more economic resources to the war effort and overtook Britain. It’s a key thing that helped Britain last so long prior to the US entering the war. . All war is decided by economics, and devoting so much economic resources to the domestic population to maintain public opinion was Germany’s downfall.
The RAF during the later stages of WW2 used its Metor jet fighters to run down and destroy V1 flying bombs. As for production, as early as 1940 the UK was producing 50% more fighter air craft than Germany. During the battle of Britain it was not fighter aircraft we were short of, but trained pilots.
The Germans went the wrong way with their tank production in WW2, they ended up building the Tiger and King Tiger which although very good were extremely expensive to manufacture and couldn’t be made in sufficient numbers. To use a car analogy, they started by making Golfs and ended up making Porsches.
The Pzkpwf IV was an excellent tank throughout the war, but by 1944 it was begining to become outdated. Germany needed a more capable tank. Like the German cars of today, German tanks were over-engineered & overly complicated. One of the worst aspects was the engines, designed by Ferdinand Porsche. More tanks would not have solved their problems though, by this stage of the war, they had lost too many experienced tank crews and as was said in the video, were very short of oil.
It's only fair to point out that the Germans ended up making petrol out of coal. While theoretically sound (coal and crude oil are pretty much the same thing, apart from the latter being liquid) the process is so complex and expensive that nobody has tried it since. Britain claims that the first operational jet fighter was the Gloster Meteor, used to attack V-1 flying bombs, while many others claim Germany's Me 262 - both reached service in 1944. The US flew its first jet aircraft - the Bell XP-59- in 1943, but its poor performance meant that production went to the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, which wasn't ready in 1945, although 2 demonstration aircraft toured Europe, and 2 more the Pacific just before the War ended.
Don't worry about us, your health comes first. First jet engines dated from the 30s, however their fuel consumption was so high that an airvraft wouldn't have had more than a few minutes of flight time... The Idea of Nuclear research was more orientated towards civilian use of nuclear energy to power the cities so all the fuel would go to the army, again because of their oil shortage. Even without the Allies, the USSR would have roled over Germany on its own, might have taken longer but the Soviets would have won regardless. All Hitler could have done was slowing down the defeat by not stopping to bomb British airbases (instead, he decided to switch to bomb London to destroy British morale). He just would have taken Britain out of the war, not destroying it completely though, because of their colonial empire. Even going for resources instead of going for Moscow, Germany would have lost because most of the USSR resources are far beyond Moscow, to the East and North. USSR would have still had most of their ressources intact and continued production until Germany was demolished for good. Would have taken a few years more but that's about it. As for France's involvement, the country was split in two, the part taken over by Germany, the part that was Germany's puppet state, Vichy. Vichy forces were supposed to remain neutral and prevent the Allies of invading France back. However De Gaulle went rogue to the UK and founded the Free French Forces and continued combat alongside the Allies, mostly to take back French territory and help UK in their colonies, when they were near French colonies as well.
Sir Frank Whittle invented the first jet engine in 1937 (or that was when the first prototype was built) but he was designing engines even in the 1920's. There is way too much information to put here but you can read about it here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Whittle#Development_of_the_turbojet_engine czcams.com/video/9SmNGGligD0/video.html
Both Germany and the UK had jet powered aircraft in service before the end of WW2. All wars are logistic problems which must be addressed to succede. For the UK the USA's aid and the attlantic convoys supplied our needs. Both USA and UK supplied rhe Soviet Union's needs. Germany had shortfalls in all areas and still tried to expand which only created greater logistical shortfalls. Take a look at the details of Opperation Black Buck, the UK Vulcan bomber attack on the Falkland Islands, A feat that no nation would have even suspected we could achieve and using virtually obscolete technology. An amazing logistical triumph. When the world heard the news, blood ran cold in Mosco, as they then realised what they were facing during the cold war!
Hi, so some points. When Napoleon captured Moscow, it was not the Russian Capital; St Petersburg was! German was winning WWII, up until the invasion of Russia. They started losing when they declared war on the US after Pearl Harbour, which even the Japanese were slow to do! To win a war all you need is for the other side to give up, which up until Barbarossa had been mostly happening; except for the British & the Governments in exile.
It's an interesting subject for sure. I wrote my Uni dissertation on this, it started as 'did Hitler lose Germany the war' and I went into it thinking I was gonna find loads of examples, but as I continued it I realised that while he may have made mistakes that helped enable the Allies to win, the reasons for Germany's defeat were far greater, and he actually had a much more minor impact to why they lost than a lot of people think. My conclusion ended up being almost the opposite of what I originally expected it to be.
On the subject of jet aircraft: The first rocket powered aircraft to fly was in 1928 though this worked on a quite different manner to modern jet aircraft. The first turbo jet aircraft was flown in 1939 Germany though this was a secret project. The first publicly recognized jet aircraft was flown in 1940 in Italy. The British and Americans were also developing jet aircraft which flew in 1940 and 1941 respectively. The first operational jet fighter was the German Messerschmitt Me 262 which entered service in 1944. Shortly after the British started to use the Gloster Meteor. It is worth mentioning that all of these planes were very experimental in nature for instance the ME 262 could only fly for 60 to 90 minutes and suffered from a variety of technical issues. It is worth noting that most commercial jet aircraft use a Turbofan design not a turbojet one. Turbofan designs are being ground tested in 1943 and the first commercial design was run for the first time in 1952.
Yes, Germany had jet fighters in WW2. They were not the first to discover them or build one, just the first to do a production run of one. The biggest problem was that there was not enough of them when they are finally introduced.
Regarding the war between China and Japan, Al Murray and James Holland's podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk have covered this really well. Episodes 370 and 371, just called 'China'.
Ah, and I think you might have missed the point slightly about the Jewish scientists. It's not that the bias led the Germans to reject the science, it's that the systemic persecution meant that many of the scientists working on this stuff either fled before the war or were pushed out of their jobs (especially in academia). So the bigotry just led to a brain drain in itself rather than Hitler saying 'if a Jew invents something we're not interested'.
One way Germany may have won the war in Europe is to not have invaded Russia and not declared war on America . Then to make peace with Briton and create the European Reich. This would not of lasted long as Japan would have still come into conflict with the British empire and the US and sooner or later the call to free Europe would of led to the allies declaring war on Germany again. The big question is would the Soviet Union join the allies , Germany or stay neutral ??? The if and buts of history always interesting to ponder.... I think how it actually played out is probably the only way it could have with all the political alliances etc.....
Given that the nazis came to power because one of their most fundamental beliefs was the eradication of communism and eastward expansion, there was no way they would have just left the soviet union alone. Especially if they shared a border. Many of the indoctrinated people already felt betrayed by the nonaggression pact that meant Germany and the USSR traded raw materials and goods, rather than nazism destroying its self declared mortal enemy. Anticommunism was possibly the single largest reason for the reactionary nazi party to form in the first place, so along the line war was inevitable. With or without the invasion of the USSR, the nazi economic mismanagement, willing use of slave labour, and brutal repression would have led to their demise anyway. Their economy would have simply collapsed and their system crumbled. The longer they go without expanding and plundering, the worse their situation got
@@greg_mca Thats it , how the war played out was probably inevitable. There were a lot of communists in Germany after WW1 and the conflict between them and other factions was fresh in the German mind the NAZIS were also a socialist party which combined with the corporations similar to the US which is a corporate democracy the lines between corporatism and fascism get blurry especially in Italy at the time. Pre war Germany and Russia were tentative allies and had industrial and raw material trade and is one reason Stalin thought he had more time even though it was obvious Hitler was pushing further east after taking out western Europe bar Briton.
Basically the first jet airplane of the world was the German (unarmed) Heinkel He178 which first flew on August 27th, 1939. The first operational jet fighter was the German Messerschmitt Me262, it had its first flight on 18th July 1942 and was first used by a test unit of the Luftwaffe in April 1944. The first jet-powered bomber was the German Arado Ar 234 Blitz, first flight on 15th June 1934 and entered service in September 1944. Jet engines got developed in the 30s in the UK by Frank Whittle and in Germany by Hans von Ohain whose jet engine powered the He178.
Kings and Generals CZcams channel have released a series on Japan's rise in the 20th century. It goes into some good detail on the Japan and China conflict in the 1930's/40's. As well as why Japan wanted to expand into Asia etc.
The German jet engines had very short life because they lacked the metals to make alloys that would stand up to the heat they generated for longer. Also the German A-bomb idea (as mentioned below) was never going to happen for the reasons stated in the video.
Though it's often rather silly (and knows it) one sensible bit in DC's Legends of Tomorrow series is an episode where (through supernatural time travel-ish means) the Nazis manage to nuke New York...and this extends the war till 1947 but they still lose, because as the video says, things were just too stacked against them.
France has a very complex WWII history. They were defeated, Germany took a lot of their surviving kit, but the fascist govt set up in the wake of the defeat, kept hold of the navy, and the overseas colonies. Called the Vichy French, from the town where the puppet govt sat, there were a few occasions when there was fighting between these people and the allies. Dakar, Madagascar, North Africa. Meanwhile the allied supporting Free French were being supplied by GB and US , and would join in when assaults against axis controlled Europe were launched. In France there were resistance groups, particularly in the south, but they only grew in confidence and effectiveness when the war swung in the allies favour, and contributed little more than flea bites against the German occupation.
In my country the war between USSR and the Germany happened just because. At least in the books. The school's books didn't provide any explanation. All we had to do was to remember all of the important dates, names and cities. Everything else wasn't important enough to end up at the test.
Napoleon was showing signs of physical and mental degradation by 1812. Napoleon allowed a series of mistakes catch up. Losing in Egypt cost him many men, the naval defeat at Trafalgar killed France's chances to land invade Britain, he couldn't squash the British-funded Spanish rebellion, his willingness to forgive Prussia and Austria's leaders after defeating them, entrusted his family to rule lands that did not welcome them, and lacked strategy in dealing with Czar Alexander, to name a few. Failing to crush the Russian Army after Borodino bit him hard a few months later. He could have avoid walking the ruined trail back from Moscow if he had scouts at Kaluga. Napoleon was an egomaniac the whole way, even rejecting a proposal that would have let Napoleon keep much of his gains. Germany is blessed and cursed being in Central Europe. They can attack east or west quickly as much of the land is fast. But in a two-front conflict, it's almost doomed to fail. In WW1, Russia collapsed politically while Britain and France bided for time until the US came in. Germany almost got to Baku in 1918. In WW2, France collapsed while Britain bided for time until the US came in. The USSR fought a war of annihilation and prevailed with some luck (i.e. German mistakes, weather, lend-lease) and a whole lot of blood/sweat/tears. My fiancee is from Ukraine, which was destroyed by both the Germans and the Soviets (and now Russians).
Oh I wanna recommend you for a 'What If Scenario' the adaption of Man In The High Castle on Amazon Prime I believe, it takes place in America if Germany and Japan won the war, it has some very interesting imagery and gives you this perspective on a individual level.
That is indeed a thought provoking and very interesting series and its well worth looking at. I watched every episode, of course it would never have happened............ have a look.
Fun fact : General relativity was also seen as Jewish science. Because, you know, Einstein was Jewish. And since Einstein was also instrumental in developing atomic science (he was the one who definitively proved the existence of atoms, and he came up with E = mc²; his paper on the photoelectric effect was also very important for the development of quantum physics later on... all three in the same year, by the way), no wonder the Nazis thought of it as Jewish science too.
I know that Americans are ignorant, I just didn't think so much. Heard about the V-1 and V-2? I do not mention the Me 262, because it is, after all, a less known machine.
I honestly think that the problem here is a very common problem. Whether it's hubris, pride, arrogance, social pressure or the tendency for any specialist to look first within their own specialty, most major historical events are usually interpreted based upon the specialty of the person who is doing the analysis. Take the industrial Revolution. War people will point to increased need for production of weapons, political sorts will point to political changes, capitalists will point to the rise of capitalism, scientists will point to inventions and scientific advancement, railway enthusiasts will point to the improvement in transportation, financialists will point to changes in the economies and theologians will point to the reformation and its changes to the way people saw themselves. I am not pointing out which of these are right or wrong, just that each person will automatically ride their own hobby horse. This bias is as common today as it ever has been (maybe more so). While you may no longer get tied to a stack and burned to death, supporting an 'unpopular' theory may cause you to lose your job and/or become a social outcast.
Sir. Frank Whittle jet engine 1930's, it wasn't taken up by the British government. Germany saw the patents, copied and improved it but didn't have the exotic materials to exploit the engines, that's why they blew up or needed rebuilding so frequently where as the allies had the materials but were playing catch up on the engineering side, covered by another poster of WW2 aircraft. The nuclear weapons would also not have worked becouse they were using heavy water and not Uranium type process also covered by another poster of engineering stuff.
Jet planes, intercontinental missiles were invented by Germans in WW2. But the possibility of producing these in numbers was not there. Nuclear fission was also researched in Germany but abandoned due to lack of resources. No possibility to solve this in a reasonable time and to use it in war. Knowing that theoretically is of no use. Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his atomic research and nuclear fission. He did not receive this until 1945 in British captivity. But there he was amazed and did not want to believe that other countries were further on the subject.
I never understood the Napoleon argument of him taking Moscow being referenced during WW2. Napoleons capturing Moscow didn’t win the war simply because Moscow wasn’t the Capital of the nation at the time. It was St.Petersburg. That’s why when Napoleon sent for the Tsars surrender, they were simply ignored and got stuck in the winter. There was nothing they could do to the nation down in Moscow
France contributed very little to the war. As a power she was knocked out in six weeks. Very soon after that most of the country went into collaboration with Germany. The so-called 'resistance' was of great utility in pinning down German reserves and lines of supply and communication around D-Day, but otherwise spent most of the war as a weapons sink (supplied by Britain and the USA), with the various factions indulging in no end of internecine squabbling. The greatest number of casualties inflicted on the French from the war were not from the Germans, but instead from the... French.
The thing about resources during warfare, if you can capture them from your opponent it has double the effect. You are not only increasing your own but also depriving them of theirs. Eventually, assuming you can continue to do this & hold onto them, there will come a tipping point in your favour. (An exception might be, if a neighbouring country backed you up with theirs.)
If I remember correctly, I believe there was a Soviet plan to move the capital to Kuybyshev (now Samara) if Moscow fell, so there was clearly no intention of surrendering if Moscow fell. I also disagree with this guy that the Battle of the Bulge was a bad idea. I am not defending Hitler, I am speaking from a purely military perspective - Germany was losing everywhere by December 1944 so unless there was an attempt at an offensive by the Germans there was zero chance of them gaining an advantage of any kind. The Battle of the Bulge probably sped up Germany's defeat but IF it had (against all odds) succeeded, it could have at least given the Germans a "bargaining chip".
Germans had more friends than enemies. Just from head, without looking into books: List of German militant allies: - Italy - Japan - Hungary - Finland - Slovakia - Slovenia - Croatia - Lithuania - Latvia - Estonia - Romania - Bulgaria - Peru - Chile - Argentine - Paraguay - Venezuela - Thailand - France (Vichy) - Norwegians were volounteers to German army, - Dutch were volounteers to Deutsch (German) army - Danes surrendered without fight, and were volounteers to German army - half of Ukraine joined German side, German non-militant friends and supporters during WWII: - Spain - Turkey - Sweden - Switzerland - Iraq - Syria - Iran - Republic of China (nowadays occupies only Taiwan) - Czechs surrendered without fight and were manufacturing tanks for Germans ENEMIES: - Poland - Serbia - Greece - Ethiopia - British Empire - USA - Soviet Union (basically Russia and Belarus only, because Mongolians, Kazakhs and Uzbeks gave material support only to Moscow and others nations inside USSR tried to support Germans)*
Regarding your question: yes, the Germans developed and built the Worlds first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262. They also developed the Worlds first 'sort of semi-advanced' guided missiles with the V1 and V2 rockets.
The French were living in the past at this time. Germany had moved forward in their thinking while France still held to the WW1 model with fortresses along the Maginot line. They had not factored in modern tanks and mechanised infantry. Also the Stuka was a brilliant aircraft in causing fear and breaking up entrenched infantry.
Germany built basically one defensive line after another with all in all tens of thousands of bunkers. Westwall (Siegfried Line), Atlantikwall, Ostwall, Wetterau-Main-Tauber Stellung, Neckar-Enz Stellung, Bayerisch-Tschechische Grenzstellung,… France had more tanks than Germany.
@@HingerlAlois True, but the tactics were better. The French were overwhelmed through the Ardennes and Flanders before they could react. The French had more tanks but they were inferior to the German models. The blitzkrieg tactic was fast and worked well when there were short supply lines. This type of warfare was more difficult over the vast Russian steppe and risked the front being cut off. Even with the massive army groups invading Russia it could only succeed if the Russian army had given up. It did at first, mainly due to shock, but the forward movement of the German army groups became vulnerable as their supply lines lengthened. During the winter of 1941 Russia was on full mobilisation of its industry in the east, and the excellent Russian T34 tanks became more than a match for the German Tiger Tanks. Blitzkrieg was a good tactic against France and Poland but in Russia it started well and became less and less effective as the Wehrmacht passed deeper into Soviet territory.
@@markkettlewell7441 The French tanks weren’t really inferior, the only aspect where they were inferior was that the French had equipped only about 20% of their tanks with radios. The most numerous German tanks were light Panzer Is and IIs, which had only minimal armor and light armament. The problem of the French was their military leadership.
@@HingerlAlois That’s a fair point. I am still amazed by how Churchill managed to get the majority of the British professional army off the beaches at Dunkirk. It’s a pity that the allies were caught so easily off guard. But hindsight is 20/20.
@@HingerlAlois You're missing out, that French tanks also had a massive disadvantage in ergonomy. French tank turrets were 2 man turrest, their gun loaders were also tank commanders in one person. In addition: their battlefield overview through a few sights was terrible at best. You can barely see a thing, even in non-battle conditions. German tanks had much better optics and vision slots, better ergonomics and of course radio coordination. I had the honor to visit the inside of French and German tanks, and I would pick any German tank, instead of their French counterparts. Even with tanks like the famous Somua S35 or Char B1.
The French in WW2 did what a lot of generals do. They tried to fight the previous war but Germany wasn't playing. They had so much of their limited resources tied up in fixed defenses that the general army preparedness and non-fixed forces suffered. Germany wanted to play differently, using blitzkrieg (which I think they practiced in their involvement in the Spanish war, then refined when they took Poland?) which circumnavigated most of the French fixed defenses.
Hi Sarah!! As others have mentioned the jet-engine was invented by former RAF officer Sir Frank Whittle, but the story of its invention (at least from the british side of things) is almost tragic. When Whittle applied for funds to develop his jet-engine he was turned down because the man at the air-ministry (can't remember his name) was trying to develop his own jet-engine and didn't want the competition so rejected Whittle's application! The Third Reich was pretty much based around ideology. As an example there was an SS division called The Ahnenerbe, staffed by academics, historians and archaeologists. Himmler tasked them to find the remains of Atlantis, The Holy Grail and The Ark of the Convenant (you can see the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movies), because Himmler and Hitler believed these things existed and that they were linked to the aryan race.
On the subject of the lack of fuel for Germany, they ended up using Synthetic fuel which they made from coal, which was the one resource the Germans had a good supply of, the issue was the Synthetic fuel was it was terrible and often lead to engines over heating in the tank and planes the Germans were using, now this wasn't the only reason for vehicals like the Tiger breaking down a lot but it didn't help and was exacerbate the problems.
This raises the question, where did Britain get its oil from? Surely we faced similar problems to Germany? Also: "...for some reason human beings like to look at things as black and white and we tend to forget that there's a lot of grey area..." VERY TRUE! Also very worth taking note of and trying to improve in our own lives. I've thought about this and I think that we're like that because we have to make decisions and do things. The question "is [particular course of action] the best?" has many shades of grey, but the question "shall I follow [particular course of action]?" has to have a yes or no answer otherwise we just end up dithering and doing nothing, which is rarely the best course of action. .
Stevie - the difference is, we had control of the seas with the Royal Navy. Conversely (which everyone misses out) the Royal Navy blockaded very effectively shipments of Oil and also the rare metals they needed for reliable jet engines. So the Germans were always short of oil.
Between December 1941 and the end of the war, the Allies consumed about 7 billion barrels worth of petroleum products...of that amount, about 6 billion barrels came from the continental United States. I am paraphrasing a bit, but that is from Daniel Yergin's history of oil, The Prize. I have not found anything to contradict Yergin's numbers. 🖖✌
Jets to keep it simple Brits invented the jet and Germany beat them to it by a month. And though the German jet had swept wings the British jet was the superior jet at the time. America did start working on jets with some help from the Brits because they didn't even think they were a real thing until the Brits showed them one of the prototypes flying. As for the bomb, German scientists had made some math errors that showed them the bomb would have to be bigger then a house therefore unrealistic to pursue. It along with the other issues mentioned led to it being dropped.
The Germans had the first jet powered aircraft, the He 178 flying in 1939. The British had the jet engine first (Frank Whittle’s design) but, not for the first or last time, the powers that be were not interested in developing it so we didn’t get the Gloster Whittle flying until during the war. The Italians also had one very early on, first flying in 1940, I believe.
13:02 Small forgotten fact the Axis pact was a defensive alliance, so Japan was not obligated to help the Germans even though they has signed, its also why the US only declared war on Japan alone, not on Germany as well and it was only when the Germans decided to declare war on the US that the US joined the war in Europe, its taken for granted that the US joined the war in Europe but just like Japan wasn't required to join the war against Russia after the Germans attacked Russia, Germany wasn't required to declare war on the US after Pearl Harbour as both the Invasion of Russia and Pearl Harbour were offensive actions and as said before the Axis pact was a defensive alliance they only need to help each other if they got attacked first.
I remember a lot of tv documentaries made fairly shortly after the war. The main participants were the actual war politicians and generals etc. The Americans were very clear. If Germany had not declared war on them, they would not have entered the European war.
I’d say that the main reason for German defeat was American and British abilities to make more weapons of every type quicker using mass production methods, while Germany at this time used a more specialist hand built model. This coursed problems with reliability and no way could they produce enough materials to match the Allies. However German scientists produced many wonder weapons that would after the war used by the victorious nations. The first combat jet aircraft was the ME- 262 fighter bomber. First flight 1941 but because of engine issues the fighter wasn’t operational until 1944 Towards the end of the war Britain introduced its own jet fighter the Gloster Meteor first flight 1943
For most countries the capital is not so important that taking it would let to defeat, and Russia would have done the same as with Napoleon. Nazi Germany lost the war as they started "Barbarossa" while still at war with the UK. Hitler had thought the UK would soon yield after France was defeated. Actually he had even hoped the UK would not hold to their promises and guarantees for Poland and avoid war at all, maybe even become an ally. He did never realize that he had lost the war as soon as he ordered the first air raid against Great Britain, and lost it again as his submarines attacked the supply convoys from US to UK. He believed his own propaganda lies of victory in the West and the East and Africa and ... - and many Germans did the same and a few of them even feared the time after the victory, because they expected to be deported to Sibiria afterwards.
The jet engine was invented by Frank Whittle in England. The English did keep developing the engine until it and a suitable aircraft the Meteor was ready about the same time as the German jet. The Meteor was a fully developed aircraft and the German 262 was basically experimental when it went into production. The 262 was never available in numbers possible to impact normal operations. The British had forseen this and knew they did not have to schedule the switch from prop to jet until late on. The war actually ended before that even happened so the Meteor arrived in larger numbers for battle experience when they has a hard time even finding any German plane still flying let alone a German jet. The had over estimated how long the Germans would still be able to fight. The same happened with the British challenger tanks. A tank so developed it only ceased to be used in recent years. It is actually still in front line service in some countries. Test showed it seriously out classed the King Tiger but arrived just as the war ended. It would have slaughtered Panther tanks.
"How The Empire Of Japan Created Communist China" documentary covers "the other Eastern Front" ... also "Japan's War in Colour" ... Japanese experience. Taiwan was taken from China, by Japan, in the 1890s ... and is the basis of today's news.
Guten Abend Sogal und Roger. Welcome back. I hope you are fully recharged. The British know of the war in China, mostly because of Hong Kong and the Burma Road (which are in World at War). My uncle was a muleteer in Burma, as I have written about in comments to videos where horses in war were mentioned by you. The fighter jet was produced by both Germany and Britain around the same time, which causes arguments both ways. I want to say the Meteor was out before the Me262, but it was the latter I got the Airfix kit for as a kid as it looked good. Churchill's speeches back up the idea that once German production fell behind it would be a lost cause. He knew from WW1 experience, but spoilers to go on. I watched a good video from Western Front Association about recycling weapons and equipment in WW1 on an industrial scale, as the idea of resources had become clear. I enjoyed this video too. Hopefully the usual frequency will return.
@@eamonnclabby7067 My navy dad sailed into Singapore one day after his brother shipped out to fight communists in the Dutch East Indies just after WW2. History with Hilbert did videos about this region as he is Dutch (raised as a Geordie). Someone else in comments in WW1 video said their father was a muleteer in Burma too, as was the father of a fellow bowls team member of mine. Pre-war my uncle could knock out his shire horse to ensure it did not hurt anyone in town if panicked. A friend of mine asked "if the mule was stubborn he chinned it?"
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The video is wrong from the beginning....Hitler didnt wanted Moscow. Hitler wanted the line Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad in order to block any deliveries via this points into SU.
Hitler didnt wanted the oil for germany.....Hitler wanted the oil NOT in the hand of Stalin.
Please Make Reaction;
czcams.com/video/2W9JSm0dbcY/video.html
@@keinervondaoben720 The U.S.A. was the largest oil producer in the world at the time. Texas oil. If Germany causes the Soviets to raze Baku and Grozny oil fields, all that would do is shift US land lease priorities to the Soviet Union from trucks and shoes to oil.
20:36 Germans had more friends than enemies. Just from head:
List of German militant allies:
- Italy
- Japan
- Hungary
- Finland
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Estonia
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Peru
- Chile
- Argentine
- Paraguay
- Venezuela
- Thailand
- France (Vichy)
- Norwegians were volounteers to German army,
- Dutch were volounteers to Deutsch (German) army
- Danes surrendered without fight, and were volounteers to German army
- half of Ukraine joined German side,
German non-militant friends and supporters during WWII:
- Spain
- Turkey
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Iraq
- Syria
- Iran
- Republic of China (nowadays occupies only Taiwan)
- Czechs surrendered without fight and were manufacturing tanks for Germans
*German full-time, devoted enemies:
- Poland
- Serbia
- Greece
- Ethiopia
- British Empire
- USA
- Soviet Union (basically Russia and Belarus only, because Mongolians, Kazakh and Uzbeks gave material support only and others nations inside USSR tried to support Germans)*
@@MarkVrem .....if the Wehrmacht would have controlled the line-Leningrad-Moscow-Stalingrad, plus Murmansk (one of totally two ice-free-harbours of the SU), the logistic possibilities of the SU would have been minimised. All deliveries of the US to the SU would have been vial Wladiwostok.
Wladiwostok would have been in the area of japanese possible attacks. The logistic effort to bring all the materials from Wladiwostok to the european theatre would have been 100xtimes more difficult then via Stalingrad or Murmansk....AND the german airforce and army would have much more possibiliies to attack these deliveries before they could be brought to the front.
There's a part 2 to this video as well that I'd also strongly recommend reacting to, so you get to see all his points and clarify on more of the stuff he said in this video.
Definitely need to follow that up
@@ThirteenthOfFour I’m no longer her Patreon atm because of reasons might come back later so if you want her to do it since you are a Patreon aren’t you? Then you’ll have to recommend part 2 next time possible. Sry just not viable for me atm.
If you are a Patreon that is if you aren’t well then this is weird. xD
@@melkor3496 Of course Melkor, I'd love to recommend her part two, I remember it being a interesting video, especially as a companion to this, so I shall do that next, stay safe out there
@@ThirteenthOfFour thanks much appreciated really kind of you I would do it myself but I left as I said might return at a later date but really appreciate that you can recommend her part 2. 😃
I hate seeing things unfinished lol
@@melkor3496 You and me both, no business left unfinished!
Saying about Stalin's determination to sacrifice every single person to fight against the Nazis -- Stalin and the rest of USSR citizens did have a reason to be determined to sacrifice their lifes because according to Nazi ideology all ethnic groups of the USSR were considered as sub-huma ns deserving either to die or become slaves, so yes, our grandparents were ready to sacrifice their lifes.
The German goal was to reach the A-A line, from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan. Even the Nazis knew that the German people wasn't numerous enough to cover all the land mass of the USSR. Stopping at that line, they intended to establish German settlements in the European part of the Soviet Union, just like the Americans did on the territory of the so called "Indians". They expected continuing border collisions with the remaining Russian population in Asia, hoping that this would save the Germans from degeneration and maintain their combat readiness.
Also Hitler believed that he alone could achieve such a goal and he should begin while he was still strong enough. None of his potential successors would have the determination and ability to do so.
That seems to be, what is called "hubris".
@@thkempe Ural mountains line, I guess. Didn't know that Germans intended to establish and maintain border wars. Were they so naive? I thought they were about to establish a great empire and then, gradually conquer the whole world, using military, political and economic power.
@@user-ij5sw7fd6x That was their fantasy sure, but reality hits damn hard even for insane racist facists. Such as having to shut down historical expeditions since they kept finding out that the "superior" Aryans weren't doin much while other mighty cultures rise and fell. That's one reason they were so confident against the soviets, not only due to the prior success against france (which they had failed at in ww1), but because they had already beaten them during ww1. Combine a vast underestimation of their abilities with racist believe in their inferiority, and you get, as the other guy said, "hubris".
16:25 The jet engine was invented in the 1930s by British engineer Frank Whittle but he infamously didn't get support from the RAF, a missed opportunity. Jet engine fighters were deployed by both Britain and Germany during WW2, indeed the Germans even had rocket-powered planes as well. The best known jet fighters of WW2 are Germany's Messerschmitt Me 262 and Britain's Gloster Meteor (which was the only Allied jet aircraft of the war to see frontline service). The Americans did develop the Bell P-59 Airacomet jet during the war with British help, but it never ended up being deployed.
It was invented pretty much independently by both Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain.
Sometimes an idea strikes people in different countries because there is a need. Things such as the telephone, radio, jet engines & many others have all been researched indepently by people from different countries.
@@untruelie2640 yes but Whittle had the core concepts worked out a couple of years earlier. Britain didn’t invest in the tech as much and was about keeping pace with Germany in development however Britain did have access to the metals needed to make the temperature resistant alloys need to make reliable jet engines in 1944 whereas Germany didn’t and so the British fighters while using a less efficient compressor were faster and more reliable than the German ones. Britain had design requirements out for a jet bomber (eventually the Canberra) but didn’t rush them into the field because they had the Mosquito.
In may 44 Britain and Germany have very similar numbers of jet fighter airframes but Germany has them operational and Britain is still testing them, even when a squadron goes “operational” in June they are still kept in a development role learning how to use the aircraft well. By the time they are ready for Europe in Jan 45 there is nothing for them to shoot at. The long term result is that the me262 is out of service by 1948 despite a strong push for export orders post war where as the meteor fights in Korea.
@@skasteve6528 True - there was also an Italian engineer who had made his own jet engine.
According to Ohain, he was "heavily inspired" by some of Whittle's earlier books and technical diagrams, which were in the library Ohain frequented.
One such copy actually has notes scribbled over it.
An officer gave a speech to his men the night before D-day, he said "gentlemen the German today is like the June Bride. He knows he's getting it, but he doesn't know how big it's going to be"
🇬🇧🤝🇩🇪
German soldiers mobsed the floor with american soldiers...just their superior number and fighting on 2-fronts had been the reason for the german loss.
🇬🇧🇲🇫🇺🇲🇨🇦 🤝 🇩🇪🇯🇵🇮🇹
😉
As well as not being at all sure just where it was going to go in.
@@keinervondaoben720 Not really
@@MrShoulder ......should I show you a list of flight-aces and tank-aces and compare allies and germany? It will be hard for you :-)
When he decided to prioritize a push for the oil fields in the South instead of Moscow, it looks like not only was Hitler (95% likely) correct and his generals wrong, but there are also some hints that the generals actually worked behind his back to stall the push south.
It wasn't outright insubordination or refusing orders. They were just very pasive-aggressive about it, and they were slower than usual following their orders. Basically, that they just dragged their feet when planning and organizing the push for the oil fields, because they were still hoping to talk him into pushing for Moscow instead.
Which, ironically, only served to make Hitler *less* likely to trust them later in the war.
The first practical jet aircraft came out in WW2. Both the Germans and the British had their first jet aircraft in service in 1944 (the German Messerschmitt Me 262 in April and the British Gloster Meteor in July, respectively).
However, since the Allies already had complete superiority in the air by that point, the British didn't really see their jets as a priority. They literally could produce aircraft faster than Germany could shoot them down.
But Germany instead saw them as a wonder-weapon. A game changer that could possibly snatch air superiority from the Allies, and possibly turn the war in their favor. So they invested *a lot* in getting jet fighters produced and deployed.
And while jets might have been faster, they were also burning a lot more of that fuel that Germany didn't really have.
Also, jets were basically brand new, experimental technology, while propeller aircraft designs had been constantly improved throughout WW2. A first generation jet wasn't always superior to some of the newest propeller aircraft of their time.
So, in a sense, Germany was wasting time, manpower and fuel chasing a weapon that they couldn't really *afford* to use.
He actually caught the Soviets by surprise by going south for the Oil fields. The Soviets were expecting and preparing for another attack on Moscow.. So in a way going south also worked for that reason. In the meantime, because the Germans aren't attacking Moscow, they are instead preparing their defenses. So when the Soviets attack Army Group Center with Operation Mars, Germans are well dug in for it. So going south was the right move. They just got overwhelmed there anyways.
@@MarkVrem Exactly. That's part of why he starts to distrust the generals later on. Because he becomes convinced that he was right and he also feels that maybe they wouldn't have been overwhelmed if the generals hadn't stalled.
I once spoke to an old Soviet tank man about Tigers and Panthers. He said they weren't common enough to be a real problem and they had special reserve tanks to deal with Tigers. Generally they just use artillery to kill them or strip them of infantry. Panthers were more common in actual battle but spent so much time away being maintained or repaired they were never seen in real numbers. It was the ambush Tigers and mobile guns they cared about. Which they tried to bypass. The Germans were on the defensive mostly and able to set up ambush points. So they had to learn to predict were these might be and hit them hard before moving up
His thought after the war was the Germans just did not move or work together as well as the Soviet Army. Nothing beyond the German frontline seemed to match up with what the Germans at the front were doing. All you had to do was engage them long enough and they ran out of ammunition and pulled back. Generally to the next ammo dump area. When that was used they fell back again or were surrounded.
That is true. Panzer IV was by far most numerous of german tanks, with 8 553 units produced (all variants included) followed by Panther with about 6000 units (It was supposed to replace Panzer IV and work as counter for T-34's). There was only 1347 Tiger I tanks and 489 Tiger II tanks ever produced and coupled with notoriously high maintenance it's far too little to make an impact.
Yeah, that's the same what one Polish People's Army infantry soldier told me.
Germans after 1942 had better organization and infantry equipement, but they had very poor tanks and really few of them, and they also had too few oil to fuel them.
One point that always gets ignored in these kind of videos: WHY were the Nazis always short of Oil and rare metals? Sure they had to import them, but so did the British - we had no Oil (at the time). The answer is that the Royal Navy of Britain, with its massive naval superiority, enforced a blockade that strangled the Nazi production. They could not buy and transport it on the open seas. This is why they had to use coal to convert to oil, and why all their military strategy revolved around oil. This is one of the reasons why their jet engines failed regularly - they did not have access to the necessary rare metals. By the way, this naval blockade was a repeat of the one during the 1914 - 18 war that ended up with the German population starving and morale collapsing after the 100 days offensive.
As regards Jet engines, Sir Frank Whittle put his patent in first, but was ignored - there are some allegations that Ohain saw this design and that gave him ideas. Britain had the Meteor in service more or less the same time as the 262 (literally the definition of "in service" is the difference). The British engines were much more reliable, the 262 engines were - well - a desperate attempt at a "Wunderwaffe", unstable and short lived, pressed into service because they needed the 262. At that stage of the war, the British didn't even need to commit the Meteor to combat in case one was brought down and the Nazis could examine the engines.
The 262 looked cool, and was fast, but the swept wings were more to do with the fact they messed up the center of gravity than any real aerodynamics advances. The engines were rubbish, and the guns poor - two different calibres with different ballistic properties were not ideal.
Suggest reacting to ‘Operation Mincemeat’, a documentary telling the true story of an outlandishly bizarre plan by the British to deceive the Germans at the height of the war. Not only did the deception work, but this idea was suggested by none other than Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond 007. Also, just found out that Warner Bros are releasing a film about this in 2022.
Agreed, and putting the eyelash in the folder to know the documents been read if missing. An absolute masterclass in deception.
So a remake of the British film then.
The evidence for Ian Fleming being the originator of the idea is sketchy at best - he was secretary to the department that came up with it, so certainly knew about it, but to suggest that there is any certainty is stretching things too far. Of course, in hindsight, we know how strong an imagination he had but whether this was the first showing of it or inspiration for it is certainly not known.
Great to see you back! I'm sure none of your patrons have a problem with taking some time off instead of burning yourself out. I certainly don't.
You're correct that Germany built the first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, first used in 1944. By that point, however, it was a case of too little, too late. The gas turbine engine itself was, like every other piece of technology, the result of incremental improvements in theory and practice from engineers in France, the UK, and Germany beginning in the 1920s.
hhmmmmmm . . . Built? Started to be built, most likely. The first flight of production aircraft was by Meteor Jan '44 vs 262 March '44. The first production 262s went into service April '44. The Meteor was introduced in July '44. The earliest prottotype flights with engine were July '42 for the 262 and March '43 fpr the Meteor. First 'kills' credited July 1944 for the 262* then August 1944 for the Meteor 4th August 1944 (though many do not count v1 destruction in flight as a kill)
So "first" is somewhat of a moving feast as it were. (joke, sorry)
* though this is disputed and th formation was more of a trials unnit than an operational unit.
@@brucebartup6161 Come on, Bruce. You're a bad looser. The Germans had the jet plane first, not the British. The Me 262 wasn't the first jet plane in the air. It was the (also German, sorry) He 178 and it already flew in 1939.
Btw., in total 1,433 Me 262s were built. That's a little bit more than just a start to build.
@@thkempe Every technical "first" granted to the Nazis is taken as a point justifying their system of government. Think of how apologists all line up behind the Wunder Waffen myths.
I grant you the early flights but SoGal's question was about practical jets. |||A n
@@thkempe but, whats the point of making a jet plane, if you have no fuel to run them?
@@brucebartup6161 If the Germans had it first, they had it first. I prefer history that tells me what has been, rather than what would have been nice. It‘s a matter of facts, not of political correctness and wishful thinking.
The Gloster Meteor entered Squadron service with 616 Squadron RAF on 12th July 1944. The first operational ME 262 unit was Kommando Nowotny which was operational from 3rd October 1944. 262's encountered over Europe before this date were mostly from Erprobungskommando 262 (EK262) which was formed around the same time 616 had received their first aircraft, but was not a fully operational fighter unit, more a semi operational trials unit.
Germany was rich in coal but poor in oil. It spent a lot of money in creating processes to chemically produce oil from coal. This is a very expensive and wasteful endeavour. Without oil the war economy of the Reich was doomed. It needed the Caucasus. But when it got close the Russians set them on fire. They also needed rubber and manganese and these essential commodities were in short supply.
About "Just take Moscow" argument: in the winter 1941 there was a backup HQ for political and military leadership prepared in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) and by the mid winter much of non-essential staff were transferred there (Stalin and the rest of high command delayed their evacuation to the last time for obvious propaganda reasons). So THERE WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that Stalin and USSR just folded after the fall of Moscow.
Oh and rejecting science entire science fields on political motives is not exclusively German thing. Soviets rejected genetics, cybernetics and sociology an a basis that they were "capitalistic mumbo-jumbo"
lol americans also did! dismissing proper healthcare as "communist mumbo-jumbo"
@@jonasmejerpedersen4847 Did they shoot the doctors though?
@@090giver090 nope. i wasn´t trying to say america is worse than the soviets, its just they still havent gotten good healthcare
@@090giver090 you have brainworms
@@090giver090 The Soviets contended some aspects of genetics, but sociology was broadly embraced, more so than in the US recently due to being collectivistic and Marx contributing to development of field, and tried cybernetics via OGAS.
Another problem with the notion of the Soviet Union just collapsing if Moscow, or some other event had happened, is the nature of the war against Russia. Hitler, along with the great majority of his Generals had decided to wage a war of annihilation. Their aim was not to defeat the Soviet Union but to destroy it. Further this war of annihilation was designed right from the beginning, in the planning stages, to involve mass murder on a colossal scale. Soviet prisoners of war were to be shot and starved by the millions, which is what happened, Soviet civilians were to be enslaved, starved to death, shot etc. The initial plan was to starve 20 million to death, deport millions to Siberia, (Where millions would die.), extermination of the intelligentsia, and this was only the beginning. Many more were going to be worked to death, deported etc., and most of European Russia settled by Germans and any remnants of the previous population employed has slaves. Russian cities like Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev etc., etc., were to be wiped off the map.
This insanity had the support of most of the German Generals, (Some of whom in the mid 1920s had worked on plans for vast eastern conquests.). The obvious result of all this would be massive resistance; a war to the death in the east. Faced with annihilation in event of a German victory I doubt resistance would have collapsed merely with the taking of Moscow etc. The German objectives in Russia ensured massive popular resistance to the end.
Glad to see you back. Nobody begrudges you taking time off, though it would be good if you could update us on the community tab so we know you're OK. While the message of this video does need saying, I think it can be misleading because it's only obvious in hindsight; plenty of countries have won 'unwinnable' wars just because their opponents had an unrealistic idea of what they were capable of. Indeed it's one reason why Nazi Germany was able to get away with so much in the leadup to WW2: clever propaganda meant people like Chamberlain thought the Luftwaffe was ready to bomb the Allies in the mid-1930s when in reality it barely existed yet. However, one can certainly argue that the Nazis in our history already had plenty of luck of this kind and still got ground down by the realities of logistics and numbers in the end.
Always great to have you back, please, don't apologize for taking out the time for yourself, being a CZcamsr is like being on a fuss, at some point there will be no more rope to burn
Great to have you back SoGal.
Hi, Sarah, its good to have you back. The Messerschmitt ME 262, the Swallow was the first jet fighter to be used in WW2 in the summer of 1944. Between launch and the end of the war they shot down over 500 allied aircraft. The British Gloster Whittle E followed later that year as the allies first jet , although the German plane was faster and more heavily armed. It was much too late to change the course of the war as the video said
The German jet was a copy of the British Frank Whittle jet engine, and though it was the first to fly, it wasn't the first jet and it was also very thirsty.
Therefore, it wouldnt have made much difference to the German loss of WW2 as they already didn't have enough supplies of fuel.
When it comes to Japan, they made the strategic decision that their potential access to vital resources lay in the Pacific area rather than in Siberia. Japan, being an island nation, was a considerable naval power and was more confident of their ability to challenge the western Allies at sea than the Soviet Union on land, and at any rate Southeast Asia had more resources readily available than the cold, trackless wastes of Siberia. It was a perfectly rational decision for them not to fight the Soviets.
There's a 4th reason why Germany had no chance of develeoping the atomic bomb before the US, and that's the fact that the British were aware of and greatly concerned by the NAZI nuclear program. Part of the reasonit was abandoned is because it was a priority target for sabotage, even so far as being the reason behind the only military action to take place in norway.
As for the French part of their military was evacuated to Britain, and became the Free French Army. Their non european troops were split on wether to follow the Vichy French (nazi pupet government) or the Free French, and a lot surrendered to neighboring British colonies. The French european Navy was sunk in port by the British Royal Navy as they did not respond to a demand to either: surrender, join the Free French, or sail to a neutral port.
The problem with WW2 is that people only tend to focus on what happened from 1939 and not look at what happened before this time. In 1933 Germany renounced it's position on the League of Nations which prevented Germany from increasing its arms and the Germany people were all for this. 1934 they sign a non-aggression pact with Poland, later they would use Polish uniforms bought by Oskar Schindler to claim that Poland attacked Germany and broke their pact so Germany could invade. 1935 Germany regains the coal rich region called Saar from the French, starts their process of rearmament and signs a naval treaty with Britain. 1936 Hitler signs up two allies, through the Rome-Berlin axis agreement with Benito Mussolini and the anti Comintern pact with Japan to oppose communism. 1938, Germany signs the "Anschluss" with Austria and reclaims Sudetenland. 1939 Germany occupies Czechoslovakia and signs an non aggression agreement with Russia. In 1918, there was a peace treaty signed between Finland and Germany, Finland and Austria-Hungary and Finland and Bulgaria which made those 3 countries part of the axis. So Germany had cast their die ready for WW2, and to add more axis powers they sent letters to Canada, Mexico and Spain to join in and fight for Germany in this upcoming war.
Never just say Britain say British Empire because that was resources the British actually had access to.
To prove this there was a war game in the 1970's that proved Germany would have lost its entire force if it had managed to land in Southern England. It would have been a slaughter on both sides. But of the two it was Germany that the state might have collapsed and a stripped skeleton of the Germany army fell to up risings in the occupied countries and their "allies" turning on them. Not to mentioned Stalin just waiting for the Capitalist to beat each other near to death before the USSR swept in.
Short break? Nein Nein Nein. Not allowed!
Seriously though, if you need time off, do it, nobody minds.
Small detail, during Napoleons time Moscow was not the capital of Russia, that was St. Petersburg…no not the one in Florida….
If I remember correctly: the Brits were the first to invent the jet engine.
But the Germans had the first combat operational jet fighters: Me 262.
The Brits followed with the Gloster Meteor.
Starting a world war in 1941, fighting against both the Sovjet Union and USA was not a very clever decision at the best of times. But when you do so without acces to sufficient oil, it is downright suicidal.
That being said it might have helped a lot if Hitler had not underestimated the Sovjet people as "untermenchen" (subhumans).
The peasants had ben forcibly collectivised by Stalin in 1928. Had Hitler given them the land back - it might have been Stalin who would have to deal with a huge partisan movement stabbing him in the back. Now the peasants were forced to stay on their collectivesed farms and just deliver even more products than before. And trying to terrorise the population into submission had a similar effect to what the americans recently experienced in Afghanistan.
I mean, he decided to start the war with the Soviet union in 1941 because
a) didn't have enough oil for the airplanes and u-boats that would have been needed to blockade Britain into submission and the Soviet Union was the only place he could reliably get it from without relying on neutrals or being blocaded by Britain
and
b) he was always planning on fightin the Soviets at some point anyway, and he wanted to do it before the Soviets were actually started to industrialize and reform their army to a point such a degree that Germany couldn't keep up anymore.
Bof of those problems were true. And both of those problems would have gotten worse with time.
That's kinda the whole reason why WW2 was an unwinnable plan from the start.
@@craniusdominus8234 One problem that lost the Axis the war was the Axis mindset. Leaving America alone and just targeting Britain, France and the Netherlands and Japan asking Malaya, Burma and Java for help to stay liberated rather than treating them as slaves could have won Japan the Pacific theatre. Also the Ukranians were delighted to be liberated but were targeted by Germany like the other 'slavs'. Not invading Russia or making an ally of Ukraine could have netted Germany all the Baku and Middle eastern oil and Britain would have to get it all from America. Assuming Germany hadn't won the Battle of Britain (they came very close) and invading the Uk (using air power to neutralise the Royal navy) anyway. On paper the Axis could win, with allies, but they'd have to behave differently to do that, and as fascists, they couldn't.
The great imponderable of WW2 - would Congress have declared war on Germany in December 1941 if Hitler hadn't saved them the trouble ? There was a very strong anti-British sentiment in the US at the time and it would have simplified matters greatly both politically and logistically.
Your comment about Germany's need for oil reminded me that one of the main reasons for Japan's strategy was the same, the grabbing of oilfields. From memory that was also why Japan invaded china - they were doing a resource grab.
As they say, war never changes. Always about le resources.
Glad you're alright So Gal x
The Japanese losing in 1939 against Russia and the fall of Berlin have someone in common - Marshall Zhukov. Arguably the greatest commander in WW2.
The campaign against the USSR was not only about communism, but more about resources: the vast fields around Wolga and Don, the Romania oil fields and the Caspic Sea. General Rommel even fantasized about getting from North Africa via Egypt to Irak and then opening a South Front to the Caspian oil.
The war material production in Germany was heavily hampered by the Versailles treaties and the reparations after WW I. The Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar republic, was limited by those treaties to 115.000 soldiers, aircraft production was limited to civil purposes and so on. The Nazis broke these treaties and put a lot of money into arms buildup - but the 6 years until 1939 were far too short for that. Hitler would have even started the war as early as 1937, if his generals had conceded to this. The Barbarossa campaign started mainly with tanks and half-track vehicles looted from the armed forces of Netherlands and Belgium. Germany did have a strong steel industry (at least after French and Belgian occupation forces had left in 1925), but most of the ore had to be imported, and as a whole Germany was still an agricultural oriented country and society. The reorganized armed forces, the Wehrmacht, peaked at 17 Mio. soldiers during the war, but the total number of the German population (including women and children) was less than 79 Mio. 1938 (population 2021: 83 Mio.), so many of the soldiers were either young recruits (drafts started at 17 years) or middle-aged men (even 45 year old men were regularly drafted, and older ones sometimes irregularly, if they were oppositional to the Nazis) which never had a regular military training in the years before the war. At the German-Russian front both sides used lots of horse-drawn carriages during the last years of the war, but the Russians had more horses and more warriors (including women).
In The UK we had the Burma Campaign on Asia mainland link to China. Germany flew a Jet in September 1939 just before the war started
Remember, Moscow was not the Capital in 1812, but was in 1941.
I really wonder why the "Just take the capital and win the war" myth is so widespread. If you just look at the Napoleonic wars only France surrendered after the capital was taken and even there it wasn't the only factor. Austria continued fighting in both 1805 and 1809 after Vienna fell, Prussia kept fighting after Berlin fell, Spain kept fighting after Madrid fell several times and Russia kept fighting after Moscow fell.
In 1812 the capital was St Petersburg. However he is right Moscow falls in November 41 and Russia doesn’t surrender and is probably back in control of Moscow by the end of Jan 42.
France consisted of the new occupied government based in Vichy, known as Vichy France and then the "Free French" that consisted of people who fled to the UK, some of the French that got rescued at Dunkirk and most of the French colonies in Africa.
The Free French fought to takeover the Vichy French territories, such as Gabon, Syria and Madagascar before taking part in Italy along the UK and the US and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. Symbolically it was the Free French that rode into Paris first.
The Sino Japanese war took place between 1937 and 1945. It is not possible to give much of a summary in a few words here but it is definitely something worthy of being studied more.
There were jets in wwII. The Germans developed the Me. 262. But it was pretty primitive. It's engine's had a lifespan of 22 hours, and needed major servicing every 10 hours, and though it was fast, it was as manoeuvrable as a cow. They also built the rocket powered comet 163, which killed more of its pilots than any allied airmen.
The British developed the Gloster Meteor, which entered service with the RAF, but wasn't used against the Germans as 1, they didn't want it falling into enemy hands, 2, conventional aircraft were doing everything that was required in the skies over Germany. It did see action against the V1 flying bombs though, as it had the speed to catch them.
A jet that outperforms its opponents in speed and climb rate as the Me262 did, doesn't need dogfight capability. The initiative is always on the jet's side. It can attack and stop the fight at every moment. A steep turn is only a defensive maneuver.
Good to see you back and happy holidays! :D
Another reason Germany didnt win WW2 that is barely ever mentioned is the effort to build up the Kreigsmarine. The Germans gave priority to its Navy in production of ships and submarines. Thousands of men were conscripted to serve at sea and valuable resources went in to ship production. Had those been used to benefit the Army instead of the Navy, Hitler might just have captured those southern oil deposits he desperately needed. As it was the German Navy was never able to match the Royal Navy, which with American & Canadian help won the Battle of the Atlantic, and ceased to be a real threat to the Allies by D Day.
15:30 Fascists can win no war by technology. The disdain of real science is a characteristic of fascism (and most other totalitarian ideologies) - only thoughts are allowed which fit into the ideology. The Nazis forced many of the best German scientists and engineers into exile, and kept some opportunists with fantastical ideas, but without the means to realize them. The Nazis preferred strong, bullying designs over intelligent, efficient ones - see the Maus designed by Porsche or the Elefant/Ferdinand (also designed by Porsche). These heavy tanks were planned to go into action at the Russian front, but there were no streets and bridges strong enough to support them. And they had the first military jets, but could not decide which design to use, so they built a lot of prototypes, but only a handful of real fighter aircrafts (the Messerschmidt Me 262, 1433 aircrafts built 1943-1945, 1039 jets put to service, 200 damaged afterwards, 727 lost, but only 232 of that number by enemy action, 264 left at April 10th 1945. Due to shortage of aluminium the last ones used wooden parts for replacement).
I think Germany was the 5th country to build a jet engine ,But the first to get a jet fighter into service .England ,Italy ,France and America all had the jet engine first not necessarily in that order .
As pointed out by some histoians, just thinnking about it in a sober and analytic way, there is no way the soviet union would have given up just because their capital would be taken.
The only major country in recent history that comes to mind where that worked was France. (in the franco prussian war and WW2) But no one else. Even the holy roman empire did not back down when vienna was taken in earlier times. Nor would have germany themselves if just the capital would have been taken. So to me it is a mystery why the people who were of that opinion in the german command structure could even think that about the USSR.
And about the atomic program: i don't know if that was a consideration, but i could imagine that the whole reason for expansion and gaining living space is contrary to use a nuke. If you nuke an area, it's not that good to live in after that.
And even for France it mainly worked due to the overall political instability in 1940 (and 1870/71 was basically the same in that regard).
Of course they could win. One thing that cost them was domestic politics related to economic production, as it wasn’t until 1943 or so that they started devoting more economic resources to the war effort and overtook Britain. It’s a key thing that helped Britain last so long prior to the US entering the war. .
All war is decided by economics, and devoting so much economic resources to the domestic population to maintain public opinion was Germany’s downfall.
The RAF during the later stages of WW2 used its Metor jet fighters to run down and destroy V1 flying bombs. As for production, as early as 1940 the UK was producing 50% more fighter air craft than Germany. During the battle of Britain it was not fighter aircraft we were short of, but trained pilots.
Germany & Britain had jet engines/planes at the end of WW2.
The Germans went the wrong way with their tank production in WW2, they ended up building the Tiger and King Tiger which although very good were extremely expensive to manufacture and couldn’t be made in sufficient numbers. To use a car analogy, they started by making Golfs and ended up making Porsches.
The Pzkpwf IV was an excellent tank throughout the war, but by 1944 it was begining to become outdated. Germany needed a more capable tank. Like the German cars of today, German tanks were over-engineered & overly complicated. One of the worst aspects was the engines, designed by Ferdinand Porsche. More tanks would not have solved their problems though, by this stage of the war, they had lost too many experienced tank crews and as was said in the video, were very short of oil.
It's only fair to point out that the Germans ended up making petrol out of coal. While theoretically sound (coal and crude oil are pretty much the same thing, apart from the latter being liquid) the process is so complex and expensive that nobody has tried it since.
Britain claims that the first operational jet fighter was the Gloster Meteor, used to attack V-1 flying bombs, while many others claim Germany's Me 262 - both reached service in 1944. The US flew its first jet aircraft - the Bell XP-59- in 1943, but its poor performance meant that production went to the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, which wasn't ready in 1945, although 2 demonstration aircraft toured Europe, and 2 more the Pacific just before the War ended.
Don't worry about us, your health comes first.
First jet engines dated from the 30s, however their fuel consumption was so high that an airvraft wouldn't have had more than a few minutes of flight time...
The Idea of Nuclear research was more orientated towards civilian use of nuclear energy to power the cities so all the fuel would go to the army, again because of their oil shortage.
Even without the Allies, the USSR would have roled over Germany on its own, might have taken longer but the Soviets would have won regardless.
All Hitler could have done was slowing down the defeat by not stopping to bomb British airbases (instead, he decided to switch to bomb London to destroy British morale). He just would have taken Britain out of the war, not destroying it completely though, because of their colonial empire.
Even going for resources instead of going for Moscow, Germany would have lost because most of the USSR resources are far beyond Moscow, to the East and North. USSR would have still had most of their ressources intact and continued production until Germany was demolished for good. Would have taken a few years more but that's about it.
As for France's involvement, the country was split in two, the part taken over by Germany, the part that was Germany's puppet state, Vichy. Vichy forces were supposed to remain neutral and prevent the Allies of invading France back.
However De Gaulle went rogue to the UK and founded the Free French Forces and continued combat alongside the Allies, mostly to take back French territory and help UK in their colonies, when they were near French colonies as well.
Three largest powers, huh? I don't recall the there being three until quite late on in the game...
Do you remember the series of reacting to eastern front there a video called form stalingrad to kursk.
Sir Frank Whittle invented the first jet engine in 1937 (or that was when the first prototype was built) but he was designing engines even in the 1920's. There is way too much information to put here but you can read about it here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Whittle#Development_of_the_turbojet_engine
czcams.com/video/9SmNGGligD0/video.html
Both Germany and the UK had jet powered aircraft in service before the end of WW2. All wars are logistic problems which must be addressed to succede. For the UK the USA's aid and the attlantic convoys supplied our needs. Both USA and UK supplied rhe Soviet Union's needs. Germany had shortfalls in all areas and still tried to expand which only created greater logistical shortfalls. Take a look at the details of Opperation Black Buck, the UK Vulcan bomber attack on the Falkland Islands, A feat that no nation would have even suspected we could achieve and using virtually obscolete technology. An amazing logistical triumph. When the world heard the news, blood ran cold in Mosco, as they then realised what they were facing during the cold war!
Hi, so some points. When Napoleon captured Moscow, it was not the Russian Capital; St Petersburg was!
German was winning WWII, up until the invasion of Russia. They started losing when they declared war on the US after Pearl Harbour, which even the Japanese were slow to do!
To win a war all you need is for the other side to give up, which up until Barbarossa had been mostly happening; except for the British & the Governments in exile.
The soviets stoped them and defeated them.
The US helped but was Not the Main reason Germany was defeated.
It's an interesting subject for sure. I wrote my Uni dissertation on this, it started as 'did Hitler lose Germany the war' and I went into it thinking I was gonna find loads of examples, but as I continued it I realised that while he may have made mistakes that helped enable the Allies to win, the reasons for Germany's defeat were far greater, and he actually had a much more minor impact to why they lost than a lot of people think. My conclusion ended up being almost the opposite of what I originally expected it to be.
You should check out "the rules for rulers" by CGP Grey. It's a very interesting look at how dictatorships work. I think you would like it.
On the subject of jet aircraft:
The first rocket powered aircraft to fly was in 1928 though this worked on a quite different manner to modern jet aircraft. The first turbo jet aircraft was flown in 1939 Germany though this was a secret project. The first publicly recognized jet aircraft was flown in 1940 in Italy. The British and Americans were also developing jet aircraft which flew in 1940 and 1941 respectively.
The first operational jet fighter was the German Messerschmitt Me 262 which entered service in 1944. Shortly after the British started to use the Gloster Meteor.
It is worth mentioning that all of these planes were very experimental in nature for instance the ME 262 could only fly for 60 to 90 minutes and suffered from a variety of technical issues.
It is worth noting that most commercial jet aircraft use a Turbofan design not a turbojet one. Turbofan designs are being ground tested in 1943 and the first commercial design was run for the first time in 1952.
Yes, Germany had jet fighters in WW2. They were not the first to discover them or build one, just the first to do a production run of one. The biggest problem was that there was not enough of them when they are finally introduced.
Kind of a Loop
To be able to wage war they Had to wage more war
Keep up the great stuff
Regarding the war between China and Japan, Al Murray and James Holland's podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk have covered this really well. Episodes 370 and 371, just called 'China'.
Ah, and I think you might have missed the point slightly about the Jewish scientists. It's not that the bias led the Germans to reject the science, it's that the systemic persecution meant that many of the scientists working on this stuff either fled before the war or were pushed out of their jobs (especially in academia). So the bigotry just led to a brain drain in itself rather than Hitler saying 'if a Jew invents something we're not interested'.
It is a common grumble in post-war Britain that both Germany and Japan lost the war but won the peace
You can tell when a channel has influence when reaction channels are reacting said channel.
One way Germany may have won the war in Europe is to not have invaded Russia and not declared war on America . Then to make peace with Briton
and create the European Reich. This would not of lasted long as Japan would have still come into conflict with the British empire and the US
and sooner or later the call to free Europe would of led to the allies declaring war on Germany again. The big question is would the Soviet Union
join the allies , Germany or stay neutral ??? The if and buts of history always interesting to ponder.... I think how it actually played out is probably
the only way it could have with all the political alliances etc.....
Given that the nazis came to power because one of their most fundamental beliefs was the eradication of communism and eastward expansion, there was no way they would have just left the soviet union alone. Especially if they shared a border. Many of the indoctrinated people already felt betrayed by the nonaggression pact that meant Germany and the USSR traded raw materials and goods, rather than nazism destroying its self declared mortal enemy. Anticommunism was possibly the single largest reason for the reactionary nazi party to form in the first place, so along the line war was inevitable.
With or without the invasion of the USSR, the nazi economic mismanagement, willing use of slave labour, and brutal repression would have led to their demise anyway. Their economy would have simply collapsed and their system crumbled. The longer they go without expanding and plundering, the worse their situation got
@@greg_mca Thats it , how the war played out was probably inevitable. There were a lot of communists in Germany after WW1 and the conflict between them and
other factions was fresh in the German mind the NAZIS were also a socialist party which combined with the corporations similar to the US which is a corporate
democracy the lines between corporatism and fascism get blurry especially in Italy at the time. Pre war Germany and Russia were tentative allies and had industrial
and raw material trade and is one reason Stalin thought he had more time even though it was obvious Hitler was pushing further east after taking out western Europe
bar Briton.
War between the UDSSR and Germany was Not a choice. It was going to Happen No Mater what.
Both Sides knew that
@@vinz4066 Yep it ws inevitable.....
Basically the first jet airplane of the world was the German (unarmed) Heinkel He178 which first flew on August 27th, 1939.
The first operational jet fighter was the German Messerschmitt Me262, it had its first flight on 18th July 1942 and was first used by a test unit of the Luftwaffe in April 1944.
The first jet-powered bomber was the German Arado Ar 234 Blitz, first flight on 15th June 1934 and entered service in September 1944.
Jet engines got developed in the 30s in the UK by Frank Whittle and in Germany by Hans von Ohain whose jet engine powered the He178.
Kings and Generals CZcams channel have released a series on Japan's rise in the 20th century. It goes into some good detail on the Japan and China conflict in the 1930's/40's. As well as why Japan wanted to expand into Asia etc.
The German jet engines had very short life because they lacked the metals to make alloys that would stand up to the heat they generated for longer. Also the German A-bomb idea (as mentioned below) was never going to happen for the reasons stated in the video.
Although the jet engines were short lived, they were easy to build and replace.
Though it's often rather silly (and knows it) one sensible bit in DC's Legends of Tomorrow series is an episode where (through supernatural time travel-ish means) the Nazis manage to nuke New York...and this extends the war till 1947 but they still lose, because as the video says, things were just too stacked against them.
France has a very complex WWII history. They were defeated, Germany took a lot of their surviving kit, but the fascist govt set up in the wake of the defeat, kept hold of the navy, and the overseas colonies. Called the Vichy French, from the town where the puppet govt sat, there were a few occasions when there was fighting between these people and the allies. Dakar, Madagascar, North Africa. Meanwhile the allied supporting Free French were being supplied by GB and US , and would join in when assaults against axis controlled Europe were launched.
In France there were resistance groups, particularly in the south, but they only grew in confidence and effectiveness when the war swung in the allies favour, and contributed little more than flea bites against the German occupation.
In my country the war between USSR and the Germany happened just because. At least in the books. The school's books didn't provide any explanation. All we had to do was to remember all of the important dates, names and cities. Everything else wasn't important enough to end up at the test.
Napoleon was showing signs of physical and mental degradation by 1812. Napoleon allowed a series of mistakes catch up. Losing in Egypt cost him many men, the naval defeat at Trafalgar killed France's chances to land invade Britain, he couldn't squash the British-funded Spanish rebellion, his willingness to forgive Prussia and Austria's leaders after defeating them, entrusted his family to rule lands that did not welcome them, and lacked strategy in dealing with Czar Alexander, to name a few. Failing to crush the Russian Army after Borodino bit him hard a few months later. He could have avoid walking the ruined trail back from Moscow if he had scouts at Kaluga. Napoleon was an egomaniac the whole way, even rejecting a proposal that would have let Napoleon keep much of his gains.
Germany is blessed and cursed being in Central Europe. They can attack east or west quickly as much of the land is fast. But in a two-front conflict, it's almost doomed to fail. In WW1, Russia collapsed politically while Britain and France bided for time until the US came in. Germany almost got to Baku in 1918. In WW2, France collapsed while Britain bided for time until the US came in. The USSR fought a war of annihilation and prevailed with some luck (i.e. German mistakes, weather, lend-lease) and a whole lot of blood/sweat/tears. My fiancee is from Ukraine, which was destroyed by both the Germans and the Soviets (and now Russians).
Oh I wanna recommend you for a 'What If Scenario' the adaption of Man In The High Castle on Amazon Prime I believe, it takes place in America if Germany and Japan won the war, it has some very interesting imagery and gives you this perspective on a individual level.
The original book is worth a look too...no spoilers from me ....best wishes from the wirral...E
@@eamonnclabby7067 it is sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, but I appreciate the no spoilers haha, all the best
That is indeed a thought provoking and very interesting series and its well worth looking at. I watched every episode, of course it would never have happened............ have a look.
Happy reading....
Also recommend anything by James Holland on WW2....
Fun fact : General relativity was also seen as Jewish science. Because, you know, Einstein was Jewish. And since Einstein was also instrumental in developing atomic science (he was the one who definitively proved the existence of atoms, and he came up with E = mc²; his paper on the photoelectric effect was also very important for the development of quantum physics later on... all three in the same year, by the way), no wonder the Nazis thought of it as Jewish science too.
The first British jet aircraft flew in the 1941, designed by Frank Whittle, the Germans were about the same time.
The first German jet flew in Aug 39. I wouldn‘t call that „about the same time“.
I know that Americans are ignorant, I just didn't think so much. Heard about the V-1 and V-2? I do not mention the Me 262, because it is, after all, a less known machine.
Please don't cover Japan vs China without covering Nanjing. You may find it difficult.
I honestly think that the problem here is a very common problem. Whether it's hubris, pride, arrogance, social pressure or the tendency for any specialist to look first within their own specialty, most major historical events are usually interpreted based upon the specialty of the person who is doing the analysis.
Take the industrial Revolution. War people will point to increased need for production of weapons, political sorts will point to political changes, capitalists will point to the rise of capitalism, scientists will point to inventions and scientific advancement, railway enthusiasts will point to the improvement in transportation, financialists will point to changes in the economies and theologians will point to the reformation and its changes to the way people saw themselves.
I am not pointing out which of these are right or wrong, just that each person will automatically ride their own hobby horse. This bias is as common today as it ever has been (maybe more so). While you may no longer get tied to a stack and burned to death, supporting an 'unpopular' theory may cause you to lose your job and/or become a social outcast.
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour because they too were running low on fuel, which was desperately needed for a Pacific empire.
Sir. Frank Whittle jet engine 1930's, it wasn't taken up by the British government. Germany saw the patents, copied and improved it but didn't have the exotic materials to exploit the engines, that's why they blew up or needed rebuilding so frequently where as the allies had the materials but were playing catch up on the engineering side, covered by another poster of WW2 aircraft. The nuclear weapons would also not have worked becouse they were using heavy water and not Uranium type process also covered by another poster of engineering stuff.
Jet planes, intercontinental missiles were invented by Germans in WW2. But the possibility of producing these in numbers was not there.
Nuclear fission was also researched in Germany but abandoned due to lack of resources. No possibility to solve this in a reasonable time and to use it in war. Knowing that theoretically is of no use.
Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his atomic research and nuclear fission. He did not receive this until 1945 in British captivity. But there he was amazed and did not want to believe that other countries were further on the subject.
Glad to hear you'd taken a few days off. My phone died almost 10 days ago. Was getting ratty wondering what I was missing!!
I never understood the Napoleon argument of him taking Moscow being referenced during WW2. Napoleons capturing Moscow didn’t win the war simply because Moscow wasn’t the Capital of the nation at the time. It was St.Petersburg.
That’s why when Napoleon sent for the Tsars surrender, they were simply ignored and got stuck in the winter. There was nothing they could do to the nation down in Moscow
France contributed very little to the war. As a power she was knocked out in six weeks. Very soon after that most of the country went into collaboration with Germany. The so-called 'resistance' was of great utility in pinning down German reserves and lines of supply and communication around D-Day, but otherwise spent most of the war as a weapons sink (supplied by Britain and the USA), with the various factions indulging in no end of internecine squabbling. The greatest number of casualties inflicted on the French from the war were not from the Germans, but instead from the... French.
The thing about resources during warfare, if you can capture them from your opponent it has double the effect. You are not only increasing your own but also depriving them of theirs. Eventually, assuming you can continue to do this & hold onto them, there will come a tipping point in your favour. (An exception might be, if a neighbouring country backed you up with theirs.)
If I remember correctly, I believe there was a Soviet plan to move the capital to Kuybyshev (now Samara) if Moscow fell, so there was clearly no intention of surrendering if Moscow fell. I also disagree with this guy that the Battle of the Bulge was a bad idea. I am not defending Hitler, I am speaking from a purely military perspective - Germany was losing everywhere by December 1944 so unless there was an attempt at an offensive by the Germans there was zero chance of them gaining an advantage of any kind. The Battle of the Bulge probably sped up Germany's defeat but IF it had (against all odds) succeeded, it could have at least given the Germans a "bargaining chip".
Germans had more friends than enemies. Just from head, without looking into books:
List of German militant allies:
- Italy
- Japan
- Hungary
- Finland
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Estonia
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Peru
- Chile
- Argentine
- Paraguay
- Venezuela
- Thailand
- France (Vichy)
- Norwegians were volounteers to German army,
- Dutch were volounteers to Deutsch (German) army
- Danes surrendered without fight, and were volounteers to German army
- half of Ukraine joined German side,
German non-militant friends and supporters during WWII:
- Spain
- Turkey
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Iraq
- Syria
- Iran
- Republic of China (nowadays occupies only Taiwan)
- Czechs surrendered without fight and were manufacturing tanks for Germans
ENEMIES:
- Poland
- Serbia
- Greece
- Ethiopia
- British Empire
- USA
- Soviet Union (basically Russia and Belarus only, because Mongolians, Kazakhs and Uzbeks gave material support only to Moscow and others nations inside USSR tried to support Germans)*
Regarding your question: yes, the Germans developed and built the Worlds first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262.
They also developed the Worlds first 'sort of semi-advanced' guided missiles with the V1 and V2 rockets.
The French were living in the past at this time. Germany had moved forward in their thinking while France still held to the WW1 model with fortresses along the Maginot line. They had not factored in modern tanks and mechanised infantry. Also the Stuka was a brilliant aircraft in causing fear and breaking up entrenched infantry.
Germany built basically one defensive line after another with all in all tens of thousands of bunkers.
Westwall (Siegfried Line), Atlantikwall, Ostwall, Wetterau-Main-Tauber Stellung, Neckar-Enz Stellung, Bayerisch-Tschechische Grenzstellung,…
France had more tanks than Germany.
@@HingerlAlois True, but the tactics were better. The French were overwhelmed through the Ardennes and Flanders before they could react. The French had more tanks but they were inferior to the German models. The blitzkrieg tactic was fast and worked well when there were short supply lines. This type of warfare was more difficult over the vast Russian steppe and risked the front being cut off. Even with the massive army groups invading Russia it could only succeed if the Russian army had given up. It did at first, mainly due to shock, but the forward movement of the German army groups became vulnerable as their supply lines lengthened. During the winter of 1941 Russia was on full mobilisation of its industry in the east, and the excellent Russian T34 tanks became more than a match for the German Tiger Tanks. Blitzkrieg was a good tactic against France and Poland but in Russia it started well and became less and less effective as the Wehrmacht passed deeper into Soviet territory.
@@markkettlewell7441
The French tanks weren’t really inferior, the only aspect where they were inferior was that the French had equipped only about 20% of their tanks with radios.
The most numerous German tanks were light Panzer Is and IIs, which had only minimal armor and light armament.
The problem of the French was their military leadership.
@@HingerlAlois That’s a fair point. I am still amazed by how Churchill managed to get the majority of the British professional army off the beaches at Dunkirk. It’s a pity that the allies were caught so easily off guard. But hindsight is 20/20.
@@HingerlAlois You're missing out, that French tanks also had a massive disadvantage in ergonomy. French tank turrets were 2 man turrest, their gun loaders were also tank commanders in one person. In addition: their battlefield overview through a few sights was terrible at best. You can barely see a thing, even in non-battle conditions. German tanks had much better optics and vision slots, better ergonomics and of course radio coordination. I had the honor to visit the inside of French and German tanks, and I would pick any German tank, instead of their French counterparts. Even with tanks like the famous Somua S35 or Char B1.
The French in WW2 did what a lot of generals do. They tried to fight the previous war but Germany wasn't playing. They had so much of their limited resources tied up in fixed defenses that the general army preparedness and non-fixed forces suffered. Germany wanted to play differently, using blitzkrieg (which I think they practiced in their involvement in the Spanish war, then refined when they took Poland?) which circumnavigated most of the French fixed defenses.
If you want to know a bit more about what happened to the French forces after the fall of France then check something out about operation catapult
Hi Sarah!! As others have mentioned the jet-engine was invented by former RAF officer Sir Frank Whittle, but the story of its invention (at least from the british side of things) is almost tragic. When Whittle applied for funds to develop his jet-engine he was turned down because the man at the air-ministry (can't remember his name) was trying to develop his own jet-engine and didn't want the competition so rejected Whittle's application!
The Third Reich was pretty much based around ideology. As an example there was an SS division called The Ahnenerbe, staffed by academics, historians and archaeologists. Himmler tasked them to find the remains of Atlantis, The Holy Grail and The Ark of the Convenant (you can see the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movies), because Himmler and Hitler believed these things existed and that they were linked to the aryan race.
On the subject of the lack of fuel for Germany, they ended up using Synthetic fuel which they made from coal, which was the one resource the Germans had a good supply of, the issue was the Synthetic fuel was it was terrible and often lead to engines over heating in the tank and planes the Germans were using, now this wasn't the only reason for vehicals like the Tiger breaking down a lot but it didn't help and was exacerbate the problems.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!!
This raises the question, where did Britain get its oil from? Surely we faced similar problems to Germany?
Also: "...for some reason human beings like to look at things as black and white and we tend to forget that there's a lot of grey area..." VERY TRUE! Also very worth taking note of and trying to improve in our own lives. I've thought about this and I think that we're like that because we have to make decisions and do things. The question "is [particular course of action] the best?" has many shades of grey, but the question "shall I follow [particular course of action]?" has to have a yes or no answer otherwise we just end up dithering and doing nothing, which is rarely the best course of action. .
Stevie - the difference is, we had control of the seas with the Royal Navy. Conversely (which everyone misses out) the Royal Navy blockaded very effectively shipments of Oil and also the rare metals they needed for reliable jet engines. So the Germans were always short of oil.
Between December 1941 and the end of the war, the Allies consumed about 7 billion barrels worth of petroleum products...of that amount, about 6 billion barrels came from the continental United States. I am paraphrasing a bit, but that is from Daniel Yergin's history of oil, The Prize. I have not found anything to contradict Yergin's numbers. 🖖✌
Jets to keep it simple Brits invented the jet and Germany beat them to it by a month. And though the German jet had swept wings the British jet was the superior jet at the time. America did start working on jets with some help from the Brits because they didn't even think they were a real thing until the Brits showed them one of the prototypes flying. As for the bomb, German scientists had made some math errors that showed them the bomb would have to be bigger then a house therefore unrealistic to pursue. It along with the other issues mentioned led to it being dropped.
The Germans had the first jet powered aircraft, the He 178 flying in 1939. The British had the jet engine first (Frank Whittle’s design) but, not for the first or last time, the powers that be were not interested in developing it so we didn’t get the Gloster Whittle flying until during the war. The Italians also had one very early on, first flying in 1940, I believe.
13:02 Small forgotten fact the Axis pact was a defensive alliance, so Japan was not obligated to help the Germans even though they has signed, its also why the US only declared war on Japan alone, not on Germany as well and it was only when the Germans decided to declare war on the US that the US joined the war in Europe, its taken for granted that the US joined the war in Europe but just like Japan wasn't required to join the war against Russia after the Germans attacked Russia, Germany wasn't required to declare war on the US after Pearl Harbour as both the Invasion of Russia and Pearl Harbour were offensive actions and as said before the Axis pact was a defensive alliance they only need to help each other if they got attacked first.
I remember a lot of tv documentaries made fairly shortly after the war. The main participants were the actual war politicians and generals etc.
The Americans were very clear. If Germany had not declared war on them, they would not have entered the European war.
I’d say that the main reason for German defeat was American and British abilities to make more weapons of every type quicker using mass production methods, while Germany at this time used a more specialist hand built model. This coursed problems with reliability and no way could they produce enough materials to match the Allies.
However German scientists produced many wonder weapons that would after the war used by the victorious nations.
The first combat jet aircraft was the ME- 262 fighter bomber. First flight 1941 but because of engine issues the fighter wasn’t operational until 1944
Towards the end of the war Britain introduced its own jet fighter the Gloster Meteor first flight 1943
Scarlett is behind you! She jumped on the bed half way through.
For most countries the capital is not so important that taking it would let to defeat, and Russia would have done the same as with Napoleon. Nazi Germany lost the war as they started "Barbarossa" while still at war with the UK. Hitler had thought the UK would soon yield after France was defeated. Actually he had even hoped the UK would not hold to their promises and guarantees for Poland and avoid war at all, maybe even become an ally. He did never realize that he had lost the war as soon as he ordered the first air raid against Great Britain, and lost it again as his submarines attacked the supply convoys from US to UK. He believed his own propaganda lies of victory in the West and the East and Africa and ... - and many Germans did the same and a few of them even feared the time after the victory, because they expected to be deported to Sibiria afterwards.
The jet engine was invented by Frank Whittle in England. The English did keep developing the engine until it and a suitable aircraft the Meteor was ready about the same time as the German jet. The Meteor was a fully developed aircraft and the German 262 was basically experimental when it went into production. The 262 was never available in numbers possible to impact normal operations. The British had forseen this and knew they did not have to schedule the switch from prop to jet until late on. The war actually ended before that even happened so the Meteor arrived in larger numbers for battle experience when they has a hard time even finding any German plane still flying let alone a German jet. The had over estimated how long the Germans would still be able to fight.
The same happened with the British challenger tanks. A tank so developed it only ceased to be used in recent years. It is actually still in front line service in some countries. Test showed it seriously out classed the King Tiger but arrived just as the war ended. It would have slaughtered Panther tanks.
"How The Empire Of Japan Created Communist China" documentary covers "the other Eastern Front" ... also "Japan's War in Colour" ... Japanese experience. Taiwan was taken from China, by Japan, in the 1890s ... and is the basis of today's news.
Guten Abend Sogal und Roger. Welcome back. I hope you are fully recharged.
The British know of the war in China, mostly because of Hong Kong and the Burma Road (which are in World at War). My uncle was a muleteer in Burma, as I have written about in comments to videos where horses in war were mentioned by you.
The fighter jet was produced by both Germany and Britain around the same time, which causes arguments both ways. I want to say the Meteor was out before the Me262, but it was the latter I got the Airfix kit for as a kid as it looked good.
Churchill's speeches back up the idea that once German production fell behind it would be a lost cause. He knew from WW1 experience, but spoilers to go on.
I watched a good video from Western Front Association about recycling weapons and equipment in WW1 on an industrial scale, as the idea of resources had become clear.
I enjoyed this video too. Hopefully the usual frequency will return.
Mrs C,s da served in the Chindits in Burma....he was a muleteer also ...was in the first Chindits column....best wishes from the wirral.....E
@@eamonnclabby7067 My navy dad sailed into Singapore one day after his brother shipped out to fight communists in the Dutch East Indies just after WW2. History with Hilbert did videos about this region as he is Dutch (raised as a Geordie).
Someone else in comments in WW1 video said their father was a muleteer in Burma too, as was the father of a fellow bowls team member of mine.
Pre-war my uncle could knock out his shire horse to ensure it did not hurt anyone in town if panicked. A friend of mine asked "if the mule was stubborn he chinned it?"