Sabaton - NO BULLETS FLY - Historian Reaction (There may be tears involved)
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- čas přidán 19. 08. 2024
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history reaction videos ww2 world war 2 no bullets fly sabaton
Pleased you liked it and thanks for the reaction. We love watching these.
Can you stop commenting under every reaction?
I can't like all your responses.
Yarnhub I swear to God you outdid yourself with this amazing video! This video is really a beauty and something to be proud of
@@samthemaniac6284 I totally agree and I hope that there will be more projects in the future. Much love!
Like it and you guys did an awesome job telling the story!
Dedicated, I like that!
Franz Stigler said that his commander said he would kill him if he shot at a parachute. He saw Ye Olde Pub as a parachute and that is why he did not shoot him down.
That was pretty common. There is a portion of a documentary about the 303, where the canadian commander explain that once the plane is disabled, you cease fire. Except for the Polish pilots who aimed to kill the pilots. Cant blame them either..
@@Simbstah1 You`re referring most probably to memories of col. (at the time flight captain) John Kent, between August and December 1940 acting as second commander (double for same Polish officer) of A flight / 303 Fighter Squadron. As far as I remeber, he didn`t write literally about gunning down German pilots, who tried to save themselves by jumping on parachutes, by Polish fighters, but reported that after first kill, he scored with 303, he mentioned he didn`t shoot the jumper and Poles showed kind of "disappointment".
By other occasion he wrote, that when he mentioned, that such things were happening sometimes (meaning gunning down pilots jumping with parachutes), his Polish colleagues were asking that if so, are they allowed to do it too.
As far as I know (and I fully accept I may be wrong), there are no clear evidences for Polish pilots gunning down Germans ater they jumped out of the planes, but there are quite strong suggestions of such acts, also in memoirs of Polish pilots.
From September`39 there are several confirmed cases of gunning down defeated Polish pilots by German fighters, which immediately caused frustration and notion for retaliation. Very interesting here are memories of gen. Stanisław Skalski, polish top ace of the war, who scored his first kill already on 1st of September agains german HS126. Skalski scored devastating shot, forcing German pilot, oblt. Friedrich Wimmer to land, than landed next to Germans, tended to their wounds and protected them against vengeful locals, auntil MP arrived. Few days later one of his colleagues has been shot down and his already grounded and burning plane was repeatedly mowed with gunfire by Germans. After his mates learned about this, Skalski heared kind of repraches from one of them, that Germans would still torment over defeated enemy, while he behaved honorably.
To be fair, it is necessary also to take into account influence of propaganda on both sides.
As an example, still from September`39, on 11th it is said, that German pilots were trying to kill crew of already shot down PZL.37 bomber, which version is oftenly repeated even today. But we have relation from one of those airmen, gunner corporal Józef Zieliński, who clearly remindend, that yes, german planes were going around his and his mates parachutes, but not shooting at them.
To be clear, I`m not trying to deny, that Polse did such thing. For sure those things happened, and we have some evidences for that, althoug fewer, than some would like to think.
One of the points is, as I tried to explain in one of my previous comments, the fact of different approach to this war between various nations. Brits (meaning all Commonwealth Forces) and Americans had more contact with Poles so they would refer mostly to them, but same thing could be said about Russians.
Our approach to war and fight was different, in our understanding - more serious, from western point of view - more bloodthirsty. And it is also important to take into consideration, while reading / listening to accounts of veterans.
As someone once said, war can discover the best and the worst of human nature. No matter the side.
Yeah, Stigler got that at the first day in Africa. "If I ever see one of you open fire at parachute, I'll shoot you down myself". Gotta have to check the book if it was Edu Neumann who said it.
@@agp11001 if i can remember the rödel said that
@@Simbstah1 A lot of American pilots after a plane was shot down would follow it for 2-3 seconds afterwards then turn away. It’s a scene seen many times on the gun cameras on the planes.
The survivors and descendents of the Ye Olde Pub had a reunion, Franz was the guest of honor.
@Kabuki Kitsune faith in humanity is *mildly* restored
Amazon: A higher call
😭😭😭😭😭 That's beautiful.
Thank you so much for telling us this fact God bless you.
When my grandfather was a little kid (like 3-4 years old) his mother was taking him from Prague to the countryside to be safe from the war. I remember her telling me as the german soldiers boarded the train and one of them came to her and my grandfather. He was smiling and saying something in German to him. Then he grabbed him into his arms and for the rest of the ride was carrying him looking from the window and doing the train sounds as it was the only thing they both understood. My grand grandmother said the german soldier had tears in his eyes, and that it seemed he had a kid back at home as well and was missing his family. As a goodbye he gave my grandfather a chocolate. Hearing that story really opened my eyes. I just hope he survived and returned to his loved ones.
My grand aunt was also spared by a german soldier as she was a 14 years old and happened to be close to the place where operation Anthropoid happened. When she heard the explosion she hid in the near store. In her memories she wrote that a german soldiers were running all around shouting and arresting people. Then one came into the store and saw her scared crouching in the corner. She wrote he made a 'be quiet' gesture to her and left saying something to his comrades. He actually risked his life to spare her. Otherwise there would be a great chance she and all her family would be executed or something.
The fact I can share these stories is thanks to his mercy otherwise I would most likely never be born.
Ok
Incredible story man!
My Grandad wore Cracker Jacks in the Pacific, as did I though my father who was a lifer Flyboy was a little perturbed at me!
These are the type of stories that should be more talked about both in history classes and movies
@@strikeforce1500 Yea
Yo, imagine how the Grandson must have felt the moment he heard this song one day and realized what it was about. Knowing that a band he liked had wrote a song about his OWN grandfather, immortalized his story and the probably bond he had with Charlie Brown's family as a result of their broship. I can imagine the grandson being shocked and then moved to tears.
This story always makes me cry...it's my "favourite" tale of ww2
As you could see...me too!
Me three
@@VloggingThroughHistory At the very end of the video, I could hear the emotion coming through in your voice... if you didn't feel anything at the end; then you are NOT human! This is one of my favorite reactions to this video-- your reaction was completely real and it showed! Since you are a historian, it hit you even harder and I can really appreciate that!
If you feel like it, here is a great video made in the 1990's about the meeting of 2 great men! czcams.com/video/_lp9-cN_Oog/video.html
Have you heard the one about the German and some other units lost in the mountains that spent Christmas together in an old woman's house? She told both groups to leave their weapons at the door before coming inside.
The "said goodbye to the cross he deserved" part is not only about the kill mark that would be painted on his plane. The germans had a point system to determine when to award the iron cross to figther pilots. At the time of the incident the cutoff was at 50 points, with a downed fighter being worth 1 point and a bomber 3 points. Stigler was exactly 3 points away from getting it when he spared that bomber. He eventually got the medal later in the war, you can read about it on the "higher call" book by Adam Makos.
I read it too, its a realy good book to see the minds and feelings of e enemys who want to fight for their country and getting friends after the war.
He served his country and followed command. Like any soldier of war, I'm sure Stigler, morally, didn't have intentions to get the cross although on record as a German pilot he did receive it. Thus being said, Franz Stigler is surely an honorable soldier.
One of my favourite books.
There's also a third layer to it; "kill who-ever the Führer wants you to kill and you'll get medals, refuse to do so and there'll be a target on your back because now you're the enemy too."
(I doubt that Zigler would've actually considered anything in that way as a factor, I just recall reading something about how this was probably an intended layer of the song's lyrics.)
It was actually 30 points
While in training Stigler was told by his commanding officer “If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you down myself. You follow the rules of war for you - not for your enemy. You fight by rules to keep your humanity.”
Stigler later commented “To me, it was just like they were in a parachute. I saw them and I couldn’t shoot them down. “
"You fight by rules to keep your humanity.” That is a powerful statement.
Try for a second and imagine how big an effect a single sentence have made, just try and imagine that (possible) an entire family might not have existed today without this sentence.
(info stolen from the user Glassbat).
"You are fighter pilots first, last, always. If I ever hear of any of you shooting at an enemy in a parachute, I'll shoot you down myself! It is not for your enemy that you do this! You do this for yourself, for your soul, so that one day if you survive this war, you can live with yourself."
- Luftwaffe fighter Ace Gustav Rödel to rookie fighter pilot Franz Stigler before his first combat mission
rödel got that quote from a fromer ace himself asweel that was the code the red baron followed in ww1
@@xxXLonewolf87Xxx it's good to know there was still some honor somewhere in that war. The pilots code was still there (in some cases anyway)
@@xxXLonewolf87Xxx my bullshit alarm is ringing. airplane pilots in ww1 were not issued parachutes (germans used them in last few weeks of the war, but richthofen was dead by then).
@@Seygem dude read my Text again I never mentiont anything about parachutes I only sait that Rötel got that honor qote vom richthofen Who did go the same route
@@xxXLonewolf87Xxx and how would richthofen have included a part about parachutes in his quote if they weren't in use during the time he was active?
"A true soldier fights not because he hates what is before him, but because he loves what is behind him."
As a German (who still gets called a Nazi sometimes....) it's nice to see Sabaton not paint "us"/our ancestors as "single note evil", and also to hear the less "all in one bucket"-view from you.
I have a great love for Germany and her people!
My father continued hating Germans because of my grandfather being put to work on an ammunition transport to the eastern front. I wantd to know more about WW II as I grew older and read many accounts of German soldiers helping people in occupied territory on farms or in stores or just in daily life. In 1993 I met Charles brown and I asked him what event in WW II stuck with him the most, and he told me this story. Also, reading A Higher Call, by Adam Makos, really opened my eyes to the fact that most Germans, even militairy personell, had no idea of what kind of cruel acts were preformed in their country's name. This is why I sometimes think to myself, is there a good side and bad side in a war.
@@bernardtuinenburg8746 There's photos of allied soldiers forcing local residents to walk through the liberated (but not cleaned up) concentration camps.
From the looks, they really had no idea.
The closest experience I heard was from my great-uncle, who had to serve as a flak-helper in the last days of the war. All of them hated it.
@@Happymali10 Hi Max and Happy New years, if you're really interested on looking up in the history of this war and all the awful things that happaned, I recommend watching this documentary:
www.imdb.com/title/tt7528992/?ref_=hm_rvi_tt
My ancestors was be mostly German tho and what I searched they tried and help who needed one of them even tried to kill Heinrich in 1943(or something like that) he was be killed with his friends in arms for that 😭
Franz Stigler may lost the Iron cross but he gained a brother and millions of people remember his honorable action. He is immortal.
The fact that Franz and Charlie became friends after the war is the most wholesome thing ever.
You spoke about how not all germans were bad/nazis.
My grandfather used to have jewish people and guns and american pilots on his farm, in the book mosquito down (written by frank dell, pilot who lived on my grandfather's farm) he is mentioned.
Once, the germans came to his house to search the house. A german soldier was sitting at the table when a jewish girl came downstairs, they looked each other in the eyes and the german said. Go upstairs before they find you.
This action saved my entire grandfather's family their lives. I know not to judge people so quickly now.
I wish to meet that specific soldier, but i don't think I ever will.
2:14 some dude in war thunder be like: YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR RIGHT WING
Yeah it sucks how easy it is to shoot down bombers in War Thunder. I've only had a handful of games in my B-17E where I tanked hundreds of rounds and kept flying.
@@Badger_325 So you're the guy that keeps ruining my perfect boom 'n zoom?
@@eldritchgod4308 yes >:)
I seriously wish they would buff the B-17’s durability so that it isn’t a flying tissuebox that falls apart whenever a German plane so as sneezes at it
@@noahdavis3236 yes, but then everyone would complain "Nooo u kant just surviv my kanone for moar dan two seceons, unfair!!!1!!"
"The Cross he deserved" - was that if he had shot down the B-17, for the next "kill" he would get the Knight's Cross.
Yes
in germany you needed to have 30 "points" to get it and he had 27 you get 3 points for a bomber and 1 for a fighter
I can never hear this story and not get teary eyed. This one and the WW1 Christmas truce.
Yes! The truce story is one of my favorites as well.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Stories like these always show just how... strange.. war really is. We always hear about the horrific nature of it but it really is an odd thing. Another example being the battle for Castle Iter (sp?)
@@1320crusier Castle Itter, at the village Itter in North Tirol (Austria).
Some of the remarkable things of that bit of history already took place well before the actual battle.
A great-uncle of mine knew Schrader to some extent from before the war, seemed to be of the opinion that Schrader was always alright... I wouldn't know myself, all I know is that I read part of a book ("De laatste slag", in English I'm guessing the title would be something like "The last battle" or "the final battle", by Stephen Harding) because I recognized the castle's name (my grandparents had regularly been to that area) and Schrader's name from once or twice having heard my great-uncle bring it up back when I was still a kid.
@@1320crusier war brings out the worse and the best in humanity.
hope you have seen Sabatons latest music video then :)
"there may be tears involved" understatement of the century and to find out that they had reunited and on camera I just went to absolute pieces.
I recommend Uprising and Screaming Eagles. Both are great songs and both have really well done cinematic videos. Liking the reactions, keep up the good work!
The latest live video of Uprising from Warsaw is really amazing (from the 2020 tour). Joakim addresses the audience in that one.
Uprising always makes me emotional. That and The Final Solution.
I love how you included "there may be tears involved" because that I what happend when I first heard that story a while ago and when I watched the animated music video.
I think everyone cries when they see this video.
Reading the book at the moment. Gives you much more insight in the career of Franz. For me, he was one of the greatest WW2 heroes.
I remember my grandpa telling me about the war. He was a farmer in southern Germany. When he had to go to war he worked as a radio operator and mechanic in a Flakpanzer IV. One day they found a Soviet plane they shot down. In the purse of the dead pilot they found a picture of the pilot and his family. He said that this day was even worse than the one he lost his arm.
I just feel incredibly sorry for all parties involved in any war because some idiots in their government.
Humans were one of the most ruthless creatures alive we fight for any number of reasons for resources , territory or smaller petty reasons like pride or belief but sometimes on those rare times when things seem darkest we are capable of showing mercy
The way Sabaton touches people on a much broader level than just the musical aspect is quite remarkable. I cant give enough credit to them as individuals and their work as musicians and story tellers. They had me hooked from the first song I heard years ago (Lion from the north). \m/
I know Kimbolton - it was one of my qualifying x-country destinations in my pilot training.
And I know the B-17, as a member of the restoration society for SallyB, which starred in the movie "Memphis Belle" and still wears those colours on one side. I'm a few miles north of her home at Duxford, and about the same distance south of the American Cemetary at Madingley, both just outside Cambridge. SallB is the last airworthy B-17 in Europe, and is flown in more memorial days than shows, sometimes on a lonely flight over some long-disused WW2 aerodrome where there is usually a small memorial to the crews who were lost flying from there, and where a small group of relations have gathered to see where their parents, grandparents, great uncles, or whoever were based.
I've heard of this story before, but it is VERY well covered by Sabaton, and I hope they send Jovita Theren-Stigler VIP tickets for the concert most convenient for her to reach, and from what I know of the band, they will - and maybe even announce her presence in the show so that fans can applaud her father's action along with the band.
Fly high, gentlemen!
I hope they did that and me as one of the family who tried to kill Heinrich in 1943(or something like that) it's heart breaking they was be killed after that with his friends in arms 😭😢😥
Franz Stigler once said that his flight instructor informed him to never fire on a man in a parachute or "I'll kill you myself"
Not quite. He quoted another German pilot: "if I see you shoot at a parachute I'll kill you myself, for your own humanity."
@@Rawkwilder ty!
@@Rawkwilder Specifically Adolf Galland - latterly inspector of fighters and the commander of the first op group of 262a jet fighters. Epro 210 I think.
@@rosiehawtrey Wrong. It was Gustav Rodel, Stigler's superior in JG-27. Stigler did however end up becoming friends with Galland, and would serve under him in JV-44, where they flew the ME-262.
THE FEEL GOOD CHRISTMAS STORY OF 2020! I was right there with you....Those damn onions! If you want to watch another phenomenal story video just like this one in the same style and everything check out Sabaton night witches… It is about the 588th night bomber regiment made up of entirely Russian women and it is just as good as this video! It’s will get you at the end in that video too!
I had the honor to meet Charles Brown and hear this story from him personally.It really changed my view on WW II and made me a WW II history buff
Wow what an experience!
Another thing you should know, Franz Stigler trained famed German Ace, Gerhard Barkhorn. With Barkhorn, Stigler also joined the famed ace squadron Jagdverband 44.
There was a book written about this called a higher call. Thank you for the video
I have the book too and now it is time to get it out and read it!
great book, read it twice and listened to the audiobook version another 2 times
Mr. Stigler did the amazing thing, Sabaton made an amazing song out of this story, this Guy who'd made a fan clip made an amazing job and You made an amazing reaction!
Great reaction, you contributed a lot with your stories. I've listened to this song a lot not knowing what it is about, I am so glad that sabaton uploaded this, probably the most heart warming story ive heard in a long time.
If you're wondering why Franz had such a strong sense of Right and Wrong, you should read about the Pilots he flew with.
His commanding officers were Gustav Rödel and Eduard Neumann, he flew missions with Hans Joachim Marseille and Adolf "Dolfo" Galland, and even mentored Gerhard "Gerd" Barkhorn, the second highest scoring fighter ace in Military History, just behind Erich "Bubi" Hartmann.
"We are Sportsmen, not Butchers." - Baron Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen
I flew on the ye olde pub for my 16th birthday. It was the last flight before it was headed to a museum to be grounded permanently up north. So i was lucky to get to fly on it, It was an amazing experience. I'll never forget it, the sound of those engines ❤
I love Sabaton and they have a lot of incredible stories to tell in their songs but this right here is absolutely one of the best I’ve heard from them.
What are the odds that that German pilot's daughters son just so happened to be a fan of Sabaton listening to that song and deciding to call his mom? Literally 1 in 70000000000?
i cried so much my nose was running all over the place... some of the worst circumstances imaginable and it creates such a wonderful story
greetz from germany and much love to all of you
I have a personal connection to this song as well, my great grandfather was a Bombing Engineer on a B-17. on one mission the aircraft he was on got so badly damaged that they ended up crash-landing in Sweden, he even had a copy of the local Swedish newspaper with a photo of his crashed bomber on the front page. He was probably the greatest man I've ever had the privilege of talking to.
That was one of the amazing things about the B17. They were built extremely well. It was a great design. There were a large number of aircraft that made it home shot to shit with most of their control surfaces gone or in instances like this where half of the plane was missing. Somehow they still flew.
I'm not crying!
You're crying!
Damn onion cutting ninjas in the room
Franz Stigler is one of the best men to have lived, he could have just shot down another plane and been rewarded for it but he saw scared and wounded men and knew they had and deserved a chance.
He risked everything so a few enemies might live another day.
I love this song, this story and the story you told.
A Higher Call, by Adam Makos is the full story of this situation. I believe the author interviewed both pilots for the book. It's largely focused on Stigler but is still an excellent read.
This is one of the best stories from the war imo. A rare glimpse of genuine human empathy, honor and respect. With the endless lows of war, it's always good to highlight the hight of human empathy.
This was AMAZING!!! thank you for shareing this with us!! I love Sabaton, and you my friend is bringing a next level to all of it. You rock!!;
At minute 1:31: I think of war like this: it isn't bad guy or good guy, it is every man on EITHER side fighting for his or her family or for his or hers family's home. Nothing more nothing less
Wow. I hadn't seen the video until now. I must have gotten a few dust in my eyes... Such a great story, and well told by their music video. Sabaton are great, and their love for history and story telling is REAL! Proud to call them my countrymen!
Sabaton - NO BULLETS FLY - Historian Reaction (There may be tears involved)
Me who already had tears watching this :'' Good luck holding''
I feel you, mate, i feel you. Those damn onion cutting ninjas everywhere...
Nah, not ninjas, Charlie and his crew were bored so they cut some onions up and wanted the fumes through our phones.
That icon would be the Knight’s Cross. Franz Stigler was just 1 bomber kill away from earning it, but because the bomber was so damaged he considered it to be so damaged it was almost like a parachuting crew, and he had been told never to shoot a parachuting crew. Even though the crew were still inside, he reckoned if it could still fly after the beating it had taken he should just let it fly on. For all he knew the plane would never even make it back to England, he though it would crash in the Channel so he tried to get it to land in Germany but the crew refused. He could have very well taken the assumption it would crash to an officer and claimed credit for the kill but he didn’t because he had hope it’d get home. He would never earn the Knight’s Cross.
Side note: There is so much unexploded explosive material still in the ground that here in Hamburg in the North of Germany there is a law that, when you want to build a house, you have to pay for the police to send a bomb-removal team to search the whole plot of land so you don't dig into a bomb by accident.
And they keep finding ones.
Wow!
@@VloggingThroughHistory Continues to happen throughout the country. 2006, on the Autobahn A3 a Bomb exploded during construction works on it near Aschaffenburg. One men killed by that accident.
2018 near Karlsruhe in Durlach, a Bomb where found during construction works at a local company. 300 People got evacuated on that day. Later that day the bomb was successful defused.
2019 at a construction site of a local university in Karlsruhe no bomb was found, but an old pipework for a deconstructed fountain where seen as one, so the whole university has to be evacuated while experts figured out that it was no bomb. Just half a hour later everything got back to normal.
The truth is. We cant say for sure how much bombs there will be in the citys. We also cant say how much bombs still in the forrests and landsides of the country. Thats true also for Brittain. Where much lesser bomb raids where, but still happened.
I love this song so much. It's such an awesome song and an amazing story.
It's not just the code of the air but of the sea.
I was on a ship in the Red Sea during the 2013 Syria Crisis. One of the other ships in our strike group lost two sailors. The Russian ship - in the Red Sea to keep an eye on us - helped us look for our shipmates.
The Cross that he Deserved refrences the Knights Cross similar to the US's Distinquished Flying Cross
In fact had he shot down 'Ye Olde Pub' it would have been the final kill needed to secure his cross.
My great grandfather was in ww2 in fought the kamikaze pilots in the Pacific theater.
I'm a new subscriber here. I've really been enjoying these reactions. This is by far one of my favorite war stories and hearing the things you talked about made it even better. Keep up the great work! :D
I had heard of this story long before but Im only a new Sabaton fan and seeing all of your videos have made me enjoy their songs so much more! I cannot wait to see them in Denver in 2022...their message is absolutely incredible and you explaining the history and the stories behind these songs is nothing short of amazing! I cant wait for more of these videos!
I know about this story since years and listen to sabaton but even watching right now i got tears in my eyes. I am not weak though
"The cross he deserved." Part of the refrain, is in reference to the Iron Cross that Franz was due after just one more kill.
Jus to add a bit, my wife's parent's were German who immigrated to the states after the war. So I got to hear the stories from the "other end" of the conflict what it was like to be on the receiving end of American bombs by day and British bombs by night. My wife took a collage history class and one of the other students grandfathers was a bomber pilot the other perspective was quite eye opening to the entire class.
not my words. readed them from a book... "Real heroes of the war are those, who managed to preserve their humanity. even there are lots of terror, hate, loss and greave. to act still like a human."
I can never watch this with out tears. We had 7 family members go and 5 come back. My great uncle Lawrance w. Was a hellcat pilot in the pacific theater. Unfortunately his plane stalled off an aircraft carrier. In such an awful place in time humanity can still come threw.
Wow! What a story! I’ve seen a number of your videos and holy cow this is my favorite!
About aircraft identification, (at least in the 8th Air Force.) 15 aircraft made up a squadron. 4 squadrons made up a group. Several groups would make up a wing. Several wings would make up a division. The 8th Air Force had 3 divisions. The single letter before the national insignia identified the individual aircraft. An S in this case. Also appears on the lower part of the tail. The two letters identify the squadron. In this case FO which was the 527th Bomb Squadron. The K on the tail identifies the aircraft as belonging to the 379 Bomb Group. The K is in a triangle. The triangle identifies it as belonging to the 1st Air Division. The 1st flew B-17s. A Circle was the 2nd Air Division, all B-24s. And a Square was the 3rd Air Division, all B-17s. Other (numbered US) Air Forces may use different systems. As mentioned in the video, the 379th Bomb Group, and the 527th Squadron, (and its three other component squadrons,) were stationed at Kimbolton, England.
Appreciate the info! That's very helpful.
I forget which episode it was but the Brecourt Manor episode of Band of Brothers really hit on your point of the soldiers being not evil. The conversation Don Malarkey had with the Oregonian German soldier demonstrates how close the American soldier was to the German soldier in lifestyle and values.
In the book Band of Brothers the author writes that out of the Brits, Arabs, Dutch, French, Belgians, and Germans, the average American soldier found he had more in common with the Germans than any of them.
My Grandma's cousin Lt. James S. Nix piloted the B-17 "8-Ball." His original co-pilot was the legend himself Clark Gable. Before deployment the War Department pulled Gable off deployment roster so they could use him to sell war bonds. He WAS PISSED!!!
Sadly, the 8-Ball was shot down over Holland killing my Grandma's cousin. RIP Lt. James S. Nix and the crew of the B-17 8-Ball.
Lets be honest
We all cried here
You cant hide it
Man, before the year will end you can react to shiroyama of sabaton please is a Ones most gread song they had
The whole Last Stand album that Shiroyama is a part of is one of my favorites by Sabaton. Pretty much their only songs about Japan, Scotland, Africa and so on, and they all blend together to create this mental image of Spartans, samurai, horsemen, Serbians and a tank all fighting together.
@@justanunluckyirishmaninabl5178 wait, a tank?
@@giornogiovanna9635 Yes a tank my dear Italian stand user. The line from The Last Battle about Castle Itter at the end of WWII, "Jenny at the gates" refers to Captain Lee's M4 Sherman tank named besotten Jenny.
@@justanunluckyirishmaninabl5178 Oh I didn't know that Jenny was the tank
thank you for letting me know
@@justanunluckyirishmaninabl5178 the last battle is just so great. Musically and lyricly
For clarification: the line "risked his life two times that day" refers to Stigler having already been on two sorties already before spotting Ye Olde Pub from his airfield. (If you don't know what a sortie is, it is anytime a plane takes off, goes and does it's mission, and returns to base to put very simply.)
That's also why he was "rearm and refuel"ing as he had engaged Allied planes prior to this.
I highly, highly, recommend (to anyone interested) to find and read "A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II" by Adam Makos. Makos does an amazing job of recounting, not only this moment in history, but also the two men that shared it; Brown and Stigler.
This is honestly probably my favorite Sabaton song. The beat, the lyrics, the story. I salute Franz Stigler and his brother Charlie Brown.
I love history. So loving sabaton is second nature
He asked how it was still flying and that would be how the plane earned the name the "flying fortress"
About the cross: If Stigler had shot down "Ye Olde Pub" he would've been awarded with the "Ritterkreuz" / "Knights Cross" for his 23th aerial victory.
This is one of my favorite sabaton songs of all time. This is one of the most beautiful stories of humanity I have read about, and my great grandfather and namesake helped build and design these bombers so this story has a somewhat sentimental value to me just as it has to you. I inherited a solid piece of airplane glass from one of the first iterations and it is one of my most prized possessions because of the history it holds. Much love to all!
I love this song. It brings tears to my eyes everytime. It's incredible how real history like this can feel even when it happened so long ago.
F***ing beautiful display of honor and taking the moral high ground. Wow that's powerful
The saddest part of the inscription from the book is that, he was initially a flight instructor who taught his brother how to fly.
When you said about your family, I rememberd that my grandmothers brother was a RAFF pilot during the war, god bless his soul.
I heard this story a few times now and I have a small tear in my eye. The honor that this pilot deserves is immeasurable.
A little addition to how it's not always "black and white" in war...
My grandfather was a high-ranking officer in the Dutch military when the Germans invaded the Netherlands.
Being from the province of Groningen, bordering Germany, my grandparents - and their parents, and their parents before them... you get the idea - had known plenty of German friends (and there's even distant German relatives through the generations).
Being a high-ranking officer, when the government went into exile my grandfather was basically tasked with organizing what basically grew into a full-on resistance.
I'm talking officially declared dead, doing things which haunted him for the rest of his life and most of which he never ever spoke of again....
Well, during the early stages of he occupation, a German officer who was known to be a hard-line Nazi as far as politics and at least part of the ideologies went, was leading a razzia in my grandparents' home town, and he discovered a radio that my grandmother was hiding.
The German officer, a hard-line Nazi, took one look at the radio, then at a picture of my grandfather, and told my grandmother that she had less than ten minutes to get that radio out of there before his men would be searching her house.
This hard-line Nazi had known that my grandfather was officially dead, seeing that picture he decided that my grandfather looked like under any other circumstances they'd probably be friends, and his parents had raised him to treat people with basic decency - so he just couldn't let what at that point he saw as a grieving widow become another statistic in a war which he didn't even agree with.
At a later stage this same German officer did some digging and became less certain that my grandfather was truly dead... but he never let that get in the way of how he interacted with people like my grandmother.
In late 1943 that German officer was out of the picture, assumed to have been transferred somewhere else... but years after the war my grandparents found out that, despite being a hard-line Nazi, him treating my grandmother and others with some decency had basically sealed his fate, he was imprisoned and finally executed less than four kilometers from where my grandfather had been officially declared dead at the start of it all.
My grandfather died in the 60's, in Austria, where my grandparents had always gone on vacation... grandparents were hiking up a mountain trail as they had always done, then my grandfather tried to climb a rock on which he saw a flower that he wanted to give to my grandmother, the rock was too slippery and after everything that he had survived during the war, it was just a short fall that killed him.
My grandparents weren't just plain oldfashioned, they were the kind of couple that never stopped writing poems for eachother... which my grandmother kept doing until she no longer could, in the late 1990's... two years before her death she actually got contacted by the nephew of that German officer, who had been trying to piece together what might have happened to his uncle and found some of his uncle's letters to his wife (the nephew's aunt, not the nephew's wife), in which the officer mentioned my grandparents by name and said how despite his loyalties he couldn't just let my grandmother get arrested, and how he wouldn't want to imagine the shoe being on the other foot, if it'd been his wife that would have been a grieving widow that got taken away by soldiers.
So... yeah, I'll stop writing an entire novel here... long story short, as despicable as Nazi's were, that officer being a hard-line Nazi and all... he still refused to give up humanity and common decency, and he even died for taking that stand. Even some of the worst Nazi's were raised by parents who, in most cases, tried to raise their kids right, and we can't forget the environment in which those parents were trying to raise their kids as best as they could.
Kinda makes it even more sad that even with (and despite) the best parenting, some of those Nazi's still would have turned out to be the worst turds that mankind ever flushed into that sewer we call life.
My grandfather was a german Wehrmacht soldier. Drafted, a Farmer and a hunter. He became a sniper on the eastern front and was there through house fights in stalingrad. I mean I met my grandfather he was such a lovely man. You would never think that he killed people in fist close combats in russia. He also was a very sad man and like man were back in the day never took any therapy. He died in 2006 with 95 years of age. After he survived 8 years in a russian POW in siberia and escaped, he walked back by foot to germany and he is the reson iam alive today. It is crazy. Really the nicest grandfather you could think of in the neighborhood. He founded two founds for elementary schools in our area. And I just remember him smoking his pipe in the garden. Man, Iam happy we live in peace now and are brothers PS: There is no excuse for what the german Nazis did and it is mendatory that we grow up learning about the mistakes and crimes of our grandparents so it wil never happen again. You are right towards the soldiers though. I mean you got drafted and at some point your country was stormed on all fronts and it was mostly a fight for their families. The avarage soldier gave a fuck about politics. It is what happens if you invade a country. The people will fight
Thank you for speaking with so much respect 'bout us "normal" germans🖤
czcams.com/video/3ZcKKvKUPqk/video.html
There is a book about this called A Higher Call, published 2013, telling the story of these two pilots and of their post war friendship. I keep a box of tissues besides me every time I read it.
The Bomb Group is on the tail, not the Squadron. The squadron code is on the fuselage (pair of letters) along with the individual call letter (solo letter). The manufacturer’s aircraft serial number is the bold set of numbers below the Bomb Group on the tail. For instance, my Great Uncle flew 36 missions mostly on the B-17G “Betty Jane” S/N 42-32027. His tail had a red triangle with a “C” in the middle (303rd BG) with 32027 painted below it. On the fuselage, “GN” identified it as from the 427th Bombardment Squadron and “E” identified it as “Betty Jane’. He was sent home after the beaches of Normandy were finally secured having completed 36 missions. The plane was later lost on 13 Sept of 44 Mission 242 bombing the BMW Motor Plant at Eisenach, Germany. The pilot was KIA and the rest of the crew became POWs.
If you have not, I would recommend looking up Sabaton History's video on this song, they include clips from interviews both pilots made after they had met and become friends.
Rest In Peace your Grandfather.. my grandfather served during Vietnam. Died in 2007. If it weren’t for war, we as a human race would get along just great. The human race is the only race. We’re all one in Gods eyes. I can’t tell you how many recounts of soldiers on opposite sides met for the first time since the war and they bond just like any other human being. ❤️
Sorry I get what you are trying to say but you are incorrect. War is the symptom not the cause. The cause is always human greed. For that war it was the political ambitions of the Nazi taking advantage of a Germany that was economically ruined and promising an economic revival. The party demonized the Jews as the boogiemen to fear with the horrible genocide that followed. I take issue with your mention of in God's eyes... God is among the highest causes of war and destruction. Religion was also used as leverage towage war. Its routinely used as justification for war even to this day all over the world. I have no doubt that you are a devout well meaning person but religion has a dark side to it and its part of the cause of untold human suffering despite good people like you that live out their lives peacefully rather than hating others. THe problem is that politicians coopt your people's faith and corrupt it to get their wars of ambition.
Curbing the excessive greed of people in power is the only sustainable path to peace among humanity.
Incredible story. Brought a tear to my eye as well. Great video 👍✌️
Talking about soldier just being men. I was stationed in Germany and found myself, in full combat kit with M-16, standing in a gausthaus ordering food. An old man sitting behind us started talking excitedly to the one guy who spoke German. He translated the story of this old man's time in North Africa under Rommel. No enemies. Just soldiers.
what hurts me is when they died in 2008 its hard to know we soon wont have any ww2 vets but their stories will always remain for future generations to tell and so on. RIP fallen soldiers friend or foe
German pilot was Franz Stigler and Captain of B17 was Charlie Brown- Franz lived in Canada by then and Charlie in Seattle- they met again some 40 or so years later and became really close friends- both did die in 2008 I think 8 months apart 😘
During the debriefing of this mission, Lt. Brown told his superiors what had happened and he was ordered not to tell anyone about it. That was probably why it took so long for this beautiful story to be revealed.
Recommend Sabaton- The Final Solution
That's a very emotional song, a masterpiece!🤘
He flew next to him as an escort so that the Flak guns on the ground would not shoot at the bomber since they might hit their fighter plane. He broke off when he was out of the kill zone. Simple History did a video on this i believe, they had said that the bomber pilot had suffered severe blood loss and they believe he had hallucinated the entire thing but also told him to never say anything about the encounter cause it would go against all the war propaganda that they had been using to make Germans out to be heartless villains. After many years he wasnt sure if he actually HAD hallucinated until he investigated it more and found the German pilot.
When two bandits know they are humans
Little piece of history: The 109 in the video is an earlier E model of the 109. Franz (I think) flew either a G model or F model 109.
My great-uncle was a B-17 navigator from 1942 to 1944. He was only 16, he lied about his age and got in saying he was 19. The majority of his missions took place flying first out of Britain but quickly moving to bases in North Africa to bomb Italy and at the very end Berlin. In total he flew 30 missions, which I think was 5 missions more than most others. Interestingly, his flight logs show he and his crew flew a total of 15 different bombers, one of them whose name I only recall included “devil” in it was flown the most times with I think on six or seven missions. Of his 30 missions, for 20 of them he and his crew were the lead bomber for all the squadrons of all three levels, meaning he was the one navigator of hundreds in the flight tasked with finding the target. He retired from USAF in 1964 after 22 years, a Lt. Colonel. On one mission, a German 88 detonated beside them and blew a piece of shrapnel into his hat, knocking it off and leaving him with a 2-3” gash on his head that somehow didn’t get deep enough to strike bone. Despite this, he was denied the Purple Heart as the shrapnel was neither lodged in his body nor required extracting as it it punched out the other side of the nose after hitting him.
I can relate to this…I flew Army attack helicopters in combat and could have fired on enemy “combatants” many times. I would have been justified but, it wouldn’t have been right. Great reaction, thank you! By the way, my minor is world history…keep up the good work!
9:43 actually franz never mentioned this to his superiors due to court martial and possibly execution.
And charlie brown filled his superiors in and was told to never mention it to anyone due to the risk of diminishing morale.
5:50 it really depends.
Your thoughts are correct for relations between Germans and Americans, British, maybe French... but on eastern side of the front, in Poland or USSR it was very much different.
There is pretty good book regarding battles for Monte Cassino and there are memoirs of one of british officers who clearly noted difference between their approach to fight and that of Poles, who exchanged them at the positions.
This comes back to very different approach of nazi leadership, propaganda and in result - common soldier, being under its influence, to war against Poland (fight to destroy „bastard of versaille aka Poland”), to gain lebensraum (in Russia) and to that against Britain (considered by AH as sister nation to German), France or USA.
So I cannot agree with this particular remark. But same time You are right, that there is no clear black and white situation when talking about war.
I may have much less forgiving attitude towards Germans in ww2, but also won’t deny skill, bravery and devotion of many of their soldiers when it comes to defence of their homeland. Last battle of gen. Wenck Army in May’45 is very good example.
That's why I specifically mentioned Americans and Germans. I realize that was not the case between other groups, especially Russians and Germans, Polish-German or Japanese and Chinese. Probably not even true for American-Japanese relations at the time.
Could be my fault to not clearly catch this.
Anyway, I really enjoy Your videos, both gaming and those here. Is a pleasure to see somebody enjoying so much talking about and learning about history as You do and also to see oftenly different perspective.
Keep up with good work, You do!
Waiting for next vid 👍🏻
@@Krzysztof.l.Polak.84 not your fault at all. It's an excellent point that you made. Not all nations viewed one another the same way, and if there were a nation that had reason to hate the Germans, it was certainly Poland.
@@VloggingThroughHistory This was also because the frontline forces (Wehrmacht) had moved through and beyond, and the occupation forces were the SS, not exactly known for their cuddly qualities. The French occupation was primarily Wehrmacht.
Personally, after much research, I’ve determined that Slavic nations naturally fought much more brutally, often very vocal about not signing the Geneva conventions. The Germans, knowing this, already went IN to these nations with a similar mentality. Then on top of this, the political Nazi propaganda machine turned the dial up to 11 on exploiting this fact about Russia and other Slavic nations and applying a racial quality to the behavior
Poles are the first to attack other nations for their behavior; I’ve noticed, while utterly denying their own collaboration in the holocaust and pogroms. The last pogrom against the Jews was with literal death camp survivors who were homeless and living in Poland, the Polish military after the war pushed them all out in violent pogroms and they ended up homeless and heading towards Germany...with road companion ironically being German-speaking and blooded poles who were also pushed out as Prussia was obliterated but they get mad when you remind them of this. It doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still be reminded upon! Interestingly, these very people, the death camp survivors who were pushed out of Poland and were engaged by every savagery as they were on the road, formed the nucleus of the new state of Israel, my people. So do not speak to me of the innocence of Poles!
No country was innocent in WWII, but if allowed, nations will only advertise their own resistance, even if that resistance was not large compared to the rest, whether that country is Poland, Vichy France (who actually drew blood against US and British soldiers), Norway, it doesn’t matter...everyone has their Victim Flag ready to wave instead of any honest assessments. And do not get me started on Russia and Japan. Just a little acknowledgment of responsibility would go a long way.
Whats strange with my background, Dick Winters(the real one) is buried within walking distance from our home.....yet my Grandfather(RIP 2018) flew a Focke-Wulf Fw-190G-2 during the War, and the Messerschmitt Me-262A1a at the end of 1944 till the surrender in May, 1945. Was "asked" to come to the United States in 1947. Never spoke of the war until 1991.
The name of the pilot who drived Bf-109 is Franz Stigler. You may found one story about their frendship in Facebook
I take it you didn't watch the whole video...