Join the TimeGhost Army at bit.ly/WW2_208_PI Ever noticed how at least a couple Soviet operations are named after Tsarist generals? This one to take back Belgorod and Kharkov is codenamed Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev. Is someone on the General Staff feeling nostalgic for the days of Imperial Russia, perhaps? Please check out our rules of conduct before commenting: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518

I can’t help but imagine all the chiefs of staff having a big western style shootout in a big Canadian hotel with flipped over tables and stuff, and then one of the aides walks in a yells that the Italians want peace and everyone just holsters their weapons and returns to the negotiating table like nothing ever happened.

It always surprises me when Jeschonnek's suicide is mentioned in the context of the Reichsmarschall feud and/or Peenemunde, but not the death in combat of his son just days previous. It certainly was a factor in his decision.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! this is the War Room!"

There is a report that when the Pykryte was shot the bullet ricocheted off and grazed Kings leg, which as you can imagine did not improve his thoughts on the British.

I was in the US Air Force at one point in my life, which we learned about our history in Aerospace class. The B-17 Flying Fortresses had a crew of 10 airmen on board. Whenever you hear that 60 planes were lost on a mission that would also mean that 600 airmen were presumably lost as well. Due to the high casualty rate for an airman on a B-17, had a crew survived after 10 missions they were granted extra leave time to return to the US.

The invasion of Kiska, although abandoned by the Japanese, was quite a disaster for the Allies. Heavy fog let to several freiendly fire skirmishes with many dead. Also Japanese booby-trapped the whole place as well.

Another footnote this week on August 18 1943 is that the *Sikorsky H-5 helicopter* will have its first flight in the skies. It will eventually enter service in February 1945 with the first delivery of the YR-5A, although it would later gain fame during the Korean War when it was used heavily to rescue downed pilots behind enemy lines and evacuation of wounded personnel from the frontlines.

"we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when..."

German casaulties in Sicily had been actually very heavy. Post war historians especially in West , dazzled by Wehrmacht's operational tempo , mostly focus on retreat and evacuation aspect of Sicilian Campaign after Allied landings and capture of Palermo. German casaulty level had been especially high in Etna line after second week of campaign and although they somewhat delayed the fall of Sicily for a few weeks , the four German divisions deployed there under General Hans Hube's 14th Panzer Corps were mostly shattered and cut to the bone while trying and failing to defend Sicily , 7.930 killed or missing (Germans never counted their missing as dead to make their casaulty level lower in public) , 19.000 wounded and 6.670 captured. All German wounded and remaining 38.000 Germans were evacuated successfully to mainland Italy via Straits of Messina though it would take sometime to reorganise and re equip them. Of 212 German panzers deployed in Sicily only 47 were evacuated back to Italy and among lost panzers , all precious 62 Mark VI heavy Tiger tanks which were left behind in Sicily. Almost two thirds of German artillery pieces in Sicily were also lost. Italians also lost more than 150.000 men (mostly captured or deserters) and only 43.000 of them retreated back to Italy.

A sidenote this week on August 18 1943 is that Major Ralph Cheli’s B-25 bomber crash lands into the sea after being hit by Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 fighters. He could have parachuted to safety, but this would have caused his squadron’s attack to become disorganised and instead choose to continue the attack. He was believed to be killed in the crash but actually survived, although he would later die in March 1944 as a Japanese prisoner of war at Rabaul. His actions would lead to him being awarded the Medal of Honor in October 1943.

War is the mother of this channel, and the Time Ghost army is the sugar daddy. 😎👍

My great grandfather fought in the invasion of Sicily. He was an Italian American and was able to translate for Italian POW's, for which he was awarded a metal for

On a touristy note, the WW2 crew (or any of you) really should make a point of visiting Old Quebec City in Canada and its Château Frontenac where the Allied leaders were this week. Absolutely amazing!

If you haven't seen it already, I would recommend watching Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles's video called "P-47 Thunderbolt Pt. 6 Range, Deceit and Treachery" which covers the actual range of the P-47 in 1943. Long story short, the myth that would arise later on stating that the reason why B-17s were sent over Germany without escort was because no fighter with sufficient range existed until the P-51D was just dead wrong. They had a fighter with the escort range the entire time, but senior USAAF leaders, including 'Hap' Arnold, purposely hobbled development of long range escort fighters pre-war and then purposely prevented their use during the war until the aftermath of the dual Schweinfurt raids (there's another one coming in October). It was only after the high casualty rates from these raids that the 'Bomber Mafia' in the USAAF had to tacitly admit that their "the bombers will always get through" theory just didn't work. However, they couldn't just start slapping drop tanks on to P-47s because inquiring minds would wonder why they didn't do that before. Hence the need for the P-47 range myth.

I realize Indie's catch phrase, "This is modern war" was for the "Great War" series, but I miss him intoning those words with such solemnity as his conclusion week after week. Any plans for covering technological innovations, such as the development of the P-51 or the B-29 which will have a major impact in both the European and Pacific theaters as the war progresses? There are probably dozens of arms you could be covering from the major waring nations not to mention comparisons of tanks, artillery and naval vessels and tactics. This war seems to be rushing forward faster than you can keep up with your current schedule of programing.

Aviation, we went from open cockpit biplanes in the late 1930's to the first B-52 took flight in 1952. In just 20 years from strings and cloth to all metal planes longer then the first flight by the Wright Bros and jet engines.

5:10 you know the logistics of WW2 was something else when Eisenhower needed a Chief of Staff (to manage all his assistants) and THAT Chief of Staff had his own Chief of Staff as well.

That's a sweet combination of a classic pattern and dark, unassuming colours that really blend well together. Classy. 4.5/5

My great grandpa was in the navy and saw the battle of kiska from his transport ship. He was a man of few words so I've had to do a lot of researching to really understand what he was doing out and about on his vessel.

Battle of Atlantic The venerable Type IX German submarine U-43-the oldest boat in the Atlantic force-commanded by Hans-Joachim Schwantke, age twenty-four, which left Lorient on July 13. Her assignment was to lay twelve TMB mines off Lagos, Nigeria, in the Gulf of Guinea. She negotiated the Bay of Biscay, where Schwantke claimed he probably shot down an aircraft, but she did not get far beyond. On July 30, a Wildcat-Avenger team from the jeep carrier USS Santee, which was loosely escorting convoy GUS 10, found U-43 on the surface, preparing to give some fuel oil to the Typ VII U-403, commanded by a new skipper, Karl-Franz Heine, age twenty-seven, who was also bound for West Africa. The two aircraft attacked the two U-boats. Piloted by Edward Van Vranken, the Wildcat fighter came first, strafing. Immediately behind came R. F. Richmond in the Avenger dive bomber. Contrary to policy, both U-boats dived. Richmond dropped two shallow-set depth charges close to U-403 and a Fido acoustic homing torpedo near U-43. The U-403 escaped, but apparently the Fido worked as designed and destroyed U-43. Nothing further was ever heard from her. Two and a half weeks later, on August 17, while U-403 patrolled directly off Dakar, Senegal, searching for convoy Sierra Leone 135, a Wellington bomber of Free French Squadron 697 from Dakar teamed up with a RAF Coastal Command Hudson bomber and together they attacked her with machine guns and depth charges and sank her with all hands. In September, when U-403 failed to report in, U-boat Control assumed correctly that she was lost. There were no survivors. Four Type VIIs sailing in July reached the Freetown area but achieved little. Only one sank a ship: Friedrich Deetz, age twenty-six, in U-757, who torpedoed the 4,116-ton Norwegian freighter Fernhill west of Freetown on August 7 and took one prisoner. On the return to France, all four boats had a difficult time obtaining enough fuel to complete the voyage, but all got home. While hugging the coast of Portugal, the U-340, commanded by Hans-Joachim Klaus, age twenty-five, rescued five German airmen but was hit by Allied aircraft and sustained “several” casualties. However, Klaus reached France on September 2, completing a patrol of fifty-nine days. The other three VIIs returned to France from September 4 to 15, completing patrols of sixty to sixty-six days. Hitler's U-Boat War - Clay Blair Jr

I remember first learning about Pykrete from MythBusters. What a glorious episode. In the game Axis and Allies War at Sea, user Brigman fan made a HMS Habakkuk 20 Hull Points, Basing Capacity of 10+ and can hold any aircraft

We in Canada commemorated the 80th anniversary of Dieppe on the 19th (or the 1st, if we are using the series timeline). Very bad day for us. 🌺🍁Never Forget 🍁🌺

Thanks for mentioning Kiska. My father was there. Afterwards he stayed transferring to the Army Air Corp. He was then an armorer on fighters through the end of the war.

U-Boat Patrols and Casaulties in Indian Ocean (13-20 August 1943) The fourth and last of the new U-cruisers to leave Kiel for patrolling in Indian Ocean was the U-197. Her skipper was thirty-two-year-old Robert Bartels, who had commanded the new VII U-561 for sixteen months in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, laying a successful minefield in a British harbor in the latter area. On the forty-eighth day out from Kiel, Bartels found the 4,800-ton Dutch tanker Benakat sailing alone in the middle of the South Atlantic and sank her. By the time he rounded the Cape of Good Hope, it was time to proceed to the refueling rendezvous with Charlotte Schliemann. Five days shy of the rendezvous, an aircraft attacked U-197. One German was killed, but the boat survived to carry out the replenishment on June 22. In eighty-one days at sea, Bartels, like Kentrat in U-196, had sunk but one ship. Of the three experienced U-cruisers departing Bordeaux for Indian Ocean , the first to sail was the IXD2 U-181, commanded by Wolfgang Lüth, who wore Oak Leaves on his Ritterkreuz. On his twentieth day at sea, April 11, Lüth spotted the lone 6,000-ton British refrigerator ship Empire Whimbrel about four hundred miles south of Freetown. Lüth fired four torpedoes at this ship and two hit. After the crew abandoned the sinking hulk, Lüth ordered a gun action to polish her off. A shell in the 37mm gun on the deck aft of the conning tower jammed in the barrel and blew up, severely wounding three men, one of whom died later in the day and was buried at sea. Lüth arranged to transfer the other two wounded the next day to the home-bound Seehund boat, U-516, commanded by Gerhard Wiebe. Lüth finally sank Empire Whimbrel with twenty rounds from his 4.1” deck gun. Upon learning of this sinking, Dönitz arranged with Hitler to add Crossed Swords to the Oak Leaves of Lüth’s Ritterkreuz. Lüth thus became the twenty-ninth man in all the German armed forces and the fourth submariner (after Kretschmer, Topp, and Suhren) to receive this high decoration. When the news reached U-181 by an encoded radio message, the crew celebrated with beer and cognac. Lüth patrolled lower Mozambique Channel from Lourenço Marques to Durban for a full month, from May 11 to June 11. In that time he sank three more lone ships: the 5,200-ton British freighter Tinhow; the 1,600-ton Swedish neutral Sicilia (which Lüth deemed to be carrying contraband); and the small (200-ton) South African coaster Harrier, filled with ammunition. He sank Tinhow with two torpedoes and Harrier (which vaporized) with one torpedo. He first stopped the Swede with ten rounds from U-181's 4.1” deck gun. After the Swedes abandoned the Sicilia, Lüth sank her with one torpedo fired at point-blank range. Per plan, Lüth arrived at the rendezvous with Charlotte Schliemann on June 22. In his ninety-two days at sea, he had sunk four ships for 13,000 tons, a tie with Hartmann in U-198 in numbers of ships, but about 6,000 fewer tons. It was also a poor return on the investment of time, men, and resources. After recruiting one merchant seaman from Charlotte Schliemann to replace the three men he had lost early in his patrol, Lüth in U-181 proceeded northward to the island of Mauritius. On July 1, he surveyed the harbor, Port Louis, and saw three freighters, all beyond reach. Over the following two days he sank the 2,800-ton British freighter Hoihow, escaped an air attack, wasted two torpedoes on small coasters, and chased a cruiser westward toward Madagascar. This vain pursuit took U-181 to Tamatave, on the east coast of Madagascar, where on July 15 and 16 Lüth sank two more British freighters sailing alone: the 2,900-ton Empire Lake and the 7,200-ton Fort Franklin. When U-boat Control learned that Lüth was operating off the east coast of Madagascar, it ordered him to return to Mauritius. In compliance, Lüth headed eastward slowly. Near the island on August 4, 7, and 11, Lüth sank three more British ships sailing alone: the 4,600-ton Dalfram, the 4,400-ton Umvuma, and the 10,500-ton refrigerator ship Clan Macarthur. Upon learning of these successes, Dönitz recommended to Hitler that Lüth be given Germany’s highest award: Diamonds to the Oak Leaves and Crossed Swords of his Ritterkreuz. Hitler approved and effective August 9, Lüth became the seventh man in the Third Reich and the first in the Kriegsmarine to be so honored. When Dönitz radioed the news and his congratulations to Lüth, the officers and crew, bursting with pride, celebrated with beer and cognac. Thereafter Control directed Lüth to rendezvous with Bartels in U-197 at a site several hundred miles southeast of Madagascar to obtain new Enigma keys for his voyage home. By August 15, a serious morale problem had developed on U-197. In the fifty-one days since leaving the Charlotte Schliemann, Bartels had sunk only one confirmed ship, the 9,600-ton Swedish tanker Pegasus. On July 30, he had found, stalked, and attacked a convoy, damaging the 7,200-ton American Liberty ship William Ellery, later towed into Durban. An aircraft thwarted a second attack. When he complained to U-boat Control that he had not only been bombed but also had had two torpedo-pistol failures, Control replied curtly: “Vent your rage” upon the enemy. Lüth in U-181 reached the rendezvous site on August 17, but there was no sign of Bartels in U-197. Later that night Lüth intercepted a report from Bartels to Control stating that he had sunk another ship (his third on this patrol), the 7,000-ton British Empire Stanley. This action had delayed him and since he was some distance from Lüth, he requested a new rendezvous site more convenient to both U-cruisers. In the early hours of August 19, Lüth and Bartels met at the new rendezvous. Bartels gave Lüth the new Enigma keys and a second set to pass to Kentrat in U-196. Lüth told Bartels that he had seen four unescorted freighters in the rendezvous area and had shot his last torpedo at one, to no avail. In reply, Bartels said he would remain in the area and try to sink these and/or other ships. Inasmuch as Lüth was low on fuel, he could not tarry a day longer to help spot traffic. He waved good-bye to Bartels and sailed off to the southwest to meet with Kentrat in U-196. Royal Navy intelligence DFed (triangulated their broadcast location with direction finders ) much of this U-boat chatter and got a rough fix on the site where U-181 and U-197 had met and where Bartels in U-197 had elected to remain. On August 20 several Catalina flying boats of two RAF Coastal Command squadrons flew from a base near Durban to search the site. In the afternoon that day, a Catalina flying boat of RAF Coastal Command Squadron 259, piloted by O. Barnett, found U-197 casually cruising on the surface and attacked. Barnett raked the U-cruiser with machine-gun fire and dropped six shallow-set depth charges from an altitude of fifty feet. Bartels responded with his flak guns, then crash-dived. Barnett dropped a smoke float near the swirl, radioed for reinforcements, then circled the smoke for nearly an hour. Suddenly U-197 surfaced, manned flak guns, and sent out several distress signals, stating that she was under aircraft attack and was “unable to submerge.” At about that time, a Catalina from RAF Coastal Command Squadron 265, piloted by C. E. Robin, arrived and attacked. Like Barnett, pilot Robin raked the U-boat with machine-gun fire and dropped six shallow-set depth charges from an altitude of seventy-five feet. The U-197 blew up, flinging debris high into the air. The two Catalinas circled an ever-widening oil patch, then returned to base, claiming a kill. The claim was correct. The U-197 was lost this day with all hands, the second U-cruiser after Sobe’s U-179 to go down in South African waters.

The Harz mountains. the first time my home is mentioned in this series :) the KZ and Produktion facilities inside the mountains are now a Museum.

"War is the mother of necessity" what a grim, sobering thought. Indy Neidell, you do a powerful lot of work. It is appreciated.

There seems to have been more stupendous activity during this week of the war than any other. Not only the heavy battles on all fronts from Russia to Italy to the Pacific, but the discussions on Pykrete and the Atomic Bomb; and then the air raid to set back the German's rocket program at Peenemunde. By comparison, everything today moves at a snails pace. The Allies got it right at Quebec to concentrate on the atomic bomb instead of Pykrete. At the time, making a bomb out of uranium must have seemed as bizarre as making an aircraft carrier out of sawdust and ice. These WW2 videos reveal the amazing multi-dimensional efforts of WWII, not just the battles on the fighting fronts.

At last we are getting to the part which reflects the opening titles - GIs and Tommies jumping out of landing craft while aircraft bomb bridges to isolate the beachheads.

I loved your adapted quote Indy (or his ADC) about: "Necessity being the mother of invention, etc.."

Poor Jeschonnek could not be calmed The entire Reich is being bombed Puts gun to head Now Hans is dead It's tough to fret when you're embalmed! Another fine episode! Go Astros!

Excitement about Pykrete just melted away.

Geoffrey Pyke was also responsible for creating the concept of the First Special Service Force (The Devil's Brigade), the joint Canadian-American commando unit which was formed and trained outside of Helena, MT at Fort Harrison.

In my case I've noticed more often than not that the word necessity should be replaced with the word desperation.

The air raids of August 17th (and continuing into the 18th for the RAF) provide examples of the different outcomes for those shot down in B-17s and those in RAF heavies. The following figures show the fates of the aircrew in the 60 MIA B-17s and the 40 MIA RAF heavies (23 Lancasters, 15 Halifaxes and two Stirlings). 1. Schweinfurt-Regensburg 60 B-17s were MIA, of which five ditched in the Mediterranean, two ditched in the North Sea and two were interned in Switzerland. 102 KIA 381 PoW 38 evaded capture and eventually returned to England 20 interned 60 rescued from the sea after their aircraft were ditched. A total of seven B-17s were ditched but the crew of one was rescued by the Germans so they are counted in the PoW total. Additionally, six men were KIA in aircraft that returned to base, and four men became PoWs after bailing out of an aircraft that returned. 2. Peenemunde 40 RAF heavy bombers were MIA 243 KIA 45 PoW In the 60 MIA B-17s, the average number of fatalities is less than two per aircraft (from a 10-man crew). In the RAF MIA, the survival rate was less than two per aircraft (from a seven-man crew). This night was particularly bad for RAF parachuters because much of the combat was over the sea.

With the end of combat in Sicily, i will write a comment about the only unit of the French forces who took part in this campaign, the 4th Moroccan Tabor. A Tabor (meaning a batallion) is composed of several Goums (light infantry units of the French Army of Africa, made of indigenous troops, the goumiers, under mainly French supervision). They are accustomed to steep mountainous terrain, effective in night fights, and particularly fierce in assaults. Arriving at the end of April 1943 on the Tunisian front, the 4th Tabor had only taken part in the end of the campaign as an isolated unit made available to the American command. However, its brilliant behavior in the fights carried out around Bizerte earned it the esteem of its allies. On June 6 1943, General Patton specially requested to General Giraud that a Tabor be made available to him. A few days later, he expressed the desire to see the 4th Tabor receive this mission, which would begin on June 25. Patton had been able to appreciate the value of this auxiliary unit in person during the Tunisian campaign. After having quickly received American weaponery, the 4th Tabor, composed of 58 French and 832 Moroccans (66th, 67th and 68th Goums) under the command of Captain Verlet, left Sefrou on July 5 1943 for Bizerte, from where it embarked on July 13 to Licata, one of the first American bridgeheads in Sicily. Upon landing at Licata, the Tabor was attached to the 3rd U.S. infantry division of General Truscott, whose objective was to take Agrigento, an important point of support. Pushed on Naro, on July 16, the 4th Tabor will be placed at the disposal of the 15th infantry regiment (Colonel Johnson) in Canicatti. From the 17th, it will ensure the protection of the Agrigento-Palermo road and the cleaning of the mountain range to the east of this axis. On July 19, it received the order to advance towards Mussomeli, and to seize Mount Vito. After a very strenuous walk, the objectives are achieved in the evening. Progress continues all night, in the direction of Cammarata. At dawn on July 20, the reactions of Italian elements supported by an artillery battery, stopped on the western heights of the Platani valley, the first echelon of the 3rd battalion of the US 15th IR and the 68th goum. A violent bombardment falls on the Tabor HQ at Hill 515 and causes some losses. Thanks to the intervention of the mortars of the Command Goum, soon supported by American artillery, the Italian guns were silenced. At the end of the day, the Italians break off the fight. At the same time the Tabor receives the order to go as quickly as possible, on the southern heights of Lercara Friddi, so as to allow the flanking of this important road junction held by the enemy. After a long night march, the Moroccans occupy their objective, and in the morning the Italian battalion of Lercara Friddi surrenders to the Americans. Thanks to this success, the US 3rd ID can make full use of the road network and launch its motorized elements in the direction of Palermo. The advance becomes so rapid that the Tabor must be transported in trucks without its animals. It thus reaches Corleone on the day of July 22. The capture of Palermo by the Americans marks the first phase of the campaign, during which the 4th Tabor obtained excellent results. In less than a week, the goumiers have traveled nearly 120 km, in varied terrain, on recon missions or guarding the flanks, often without liaison or supplies. The movements made most of the time at night, caused extreme fatigue to men, and especially to animals. But these drawbacks were largely compensated by the success achieved at the cost of very low losses, and 127 prisoners captured. Leaving the US 3rd ID continue its progression along the North coast towards Cefalu, the 4th Tabor will be directed to the region of Résultano and Alimena in the heart of the mountainous massiff of central Sicily. Its regrouping cannot be completed before July 25 due to the lack of means of transport for the animals. From this date it is attached to the first infantry division (General Allen) of the US 2nd Corps of General Bradley. This large unit is in charge of the conquest of the central part of the island by Nicosia and Troina with the help of the British coming from the South-East. This mission is made difficult by the aggressiveness of the enemy, often German, and an extremely sharp terrain, with an average altitude of 1500 m. In charge of ensuring the protection of the northern flank of the division, the 4th Tabor occupies in the evening of July 26, the surroundings of the Petralia-Gangi road. On the morning of the 27th, this last village is reached and the mission of the day is the occupation, with the US 18th IR, of Mount Sambughetti, culminating at 1558 m. The Italian defenders of this important observatory commanding the crossroads Nicosia-San Stefanodi Canasta, retreat at the end of the night and the night of July 28 was devoted to clearing the position. Seventy prisoners were captured by the goumiers who were trying to find informations about the enemy. Patrols are sent towards Mistrette, which is recognized as occupied by the Germans. Harassment fire is carried out towards the North so as to help the friendly elements blocked along the sea at San Stefano di Canasta. On the night of the 28 to 29 July, the commander of the 4th Tabor receives the order to occupy Mount Caniglio (1084 m). The 66th goum was designated to fulfill this mission, made delicate by the absence of intelligence on the enemy and a difficult terrain. A thick morning fog hampered progress, and the leading elements suddenly collided with defensive positions held by the Germans. It took the intervention of almost all the means of the 4th tabor to release the 66th goum, quite exhausted. At the end of the morning, the enemy finally retreat under fire from the 68th goum, after having suffered heavy losses. The Sicily campaign will see the 4th Tabor go from battle to battle, often covering the flanks but also as spearhead, alongside the allies, until the capture of Messina in the morning of August 17 by the US 3rd ID and the British VIIIth Army, which will mark the end of the Sicily campaign. Active operations had ceased for the 4th Tabor from 14 August. On August 19, at the bivouac of Mount Guardolia, General Giraud came to bring the 4th Tabor the greetings of France, and to express his satisfaction.

This is awesome work, thank you Indy and all the crew.

Great job Indy & team!

Common theme: "The damned enemy isn't following our script." "Next time, try sending them a copy of the script!" It worked for Operation Mincemeat! Hint for D-Day on Northern France...

Brilliant narration as always. The quickest twenty mins- the best in my week, thanks Indy and Co😀😀😀

Thank you for another great video. My father, uncles and other relatives fought during WW2. I try to get our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to study WW2. They are very ignorant of history. Thanks again.

A wonderful introducing & coverage

LOL at the thoughts of the Combined Chiefs shooting it out. "Next thing I know, Lommy and I heard shots ring out in the closed room. We busted in and...WELL, I just started blastin!"

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!

Amazing coverage and delivery as always! It's insane to see the coordinated attacks on the Germans covered all at once in this style, really gives the sense that they're starting to be beaten in from all angles.

Yet another great episode.

Very good episode

Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

"Sicily Liberated" That's an interesting choice of words I guess. It's interesting to see how emotional things were getting RE what to do next and where to go for the allies. You think a big victory like this would help calm some tensions. And god dang King is a total drama queen.

I really want to watch this now,but I'm saving it for my Sunday coffee. There's only a few channels I hit like before I watch and this is one.

Things are a movin'!! Great job team!!

"British-American co-operation in the war was unique in history. As Lord Halifax said in his farewll speech at Washington, never before had two countries fought a war with so great a unity of military, industrial, and political effort. Two nations with sharply differing temperaments and outlook performed, in partnership, a miracle." para 2 Hansard BRITISH-AMERICAN WAR CO-OPERATION (HISTORY) HC Deb 24 March 1947 page

Gun wise the M1 Carbine made it's combat debut in the Sicilian campaign when US soldiers and paratroopers began using them in small numbers against Italian and German forces, It's my favorite WW2 weapon and was prior to this only mainly issued to guys who were either stationed stateside or in Great Britain.

Sparty with the "absolutely!" from off-camera had me in stitches 🤣

Great episode as always

General Patton participated in the Olympic Games (modern pentathlon) in 1912. Who else of the military leaders was a participant in the Olympic Games in his youth?

Phenomenal episode as always

Hi indy Another wonderfull week. Busy week. Seems like this war reach culmination point. Thanks for the video.

I will wait the video about Pyke !

Another fine video from this channel

17:19 August 1943 was a huge month for JG-52 and Lt Erich Hartman, who almost doubled his victory count during that month. The Black Devil has arrived!

A footnote this week on August 15 1943 is that the 151st Airborne Tank Company is established by the United States Army with the aim of operating M22 Locust air-portable tanks. However, the unit would remain in the United States and never saw combat during the war as the US Army had little interest in using the airborne tanks, along with several faults that were identified in the M22 tank.

Thanks!

That little music in the background was well done!

Excellent.

Ploesti and now Regensburg. Sure, they didn't go well but the boldness of the Allies is astonishing.

Fun Fact about the Messerschmidt bombing one of the buildings was repaired and is still used by another company i used to work for the architecture still looks like the 20s or so in there its brilliant

I live 10 min away from the Château Frontenac. Of course, I was aware of the allied conferences that took place there, but had never heard about shots being fired?!?! =D Hoping to learn more about that in your upcoming Pyke special.. hopefully anyway!?

I can't get over the disparity in casualties on the Eastern front even at this point

"Jolly good race" is the most British thing to say omg

Just as a BTW, Stalino is now known as Donetsk; it has been in the military news recently.

"War is the mother of necessity." Great quote, Indy! Bravo guys!

Another great episode - thank you so much! But I have to admit something: I thnk there's a short circuit in my brain, because when when you say "War..." at 18:50(ish) - my brain fully prepared for you to follow it with "What is it good for?" I probably shouldn't have shared that, but there it is. Anyway, you folks rock - please keep it up!

As joyous as I shall be when the unspeakable humanitarian horrors that are the corollary of WWII end with the defeat of the Axis Powers, I must confess, Indy: the prospect of no longer having your weekly holistic and strategic reports on the conflict; Spartacus’s brilliant, rhetorically powerful, but painfully edifying accounts of the great human cost of the War; and Astrid’s charming and clever explorations of the secret espionage wars being waged by each side-the prospect of no longer having your amazing, edifying, and impressive historiography to appreciate each week *does* make me feel rather bleak…

Around 3:20 you are showing two red points identifying (I think) two towns, Messina (correct) and "Calabria" (incorrect): the latter town is "Reggio Calabria" while the entire region is called "Calabria" (the point of the "Italian boot"). For completeness, it means "Reggio of Calabria", to distinguish by the samename town of "Reggio of Emilia" (Reggio Emilia) in northern Italy.

At 1:14, dude nobody outside of Canada will recognize, but a hugely important figure in WW2 is William Lyon Mackenzie King, prime minister of Canada. He and Churchill have known each other since 1900 when they first meet in Ottawa. King is noted as being an important mediator between Churchill and Roosevelt, with it often been said that he speaks both english and american. Churchill wants King to be at the table for all discussions at this conference, but Roosevelt vetos this as he does want to expand the "club".

I love it when Indy imitates Churchill =)

"No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, you may call me Meier."-Hermann Goering. Oof

I wanted to say this is an amazing series which gives such a detailed and in depth view of one of the if not the most intereting and impactful events in history and i watch every episode as soon as it airs. I just have one question, why didnt you just wait a year so it would have been 80 and not 79 years apart?

Tube alloys was based near me at the mustard gas factory at rhydymyn near mold in north wales ,the site is now a nature reserve ,the huts that are left standing have formulas written all over the walls in pencil ,as no pens or paper were allowed on site .. no records kept either so thousands of tons of mustard gas ordinance that overcooked is buried all over the valley . It can never be built on .i was told that in one of the underground tunnels the Geiger counter still goes off the scale

Nice

Japanese: you can't do blitzkrieg on small Islands! Americans: island hopping go wrrrrrr.

it is a shame Gen. Marshal was not listened to. Southern France has at least 2 major ports= Toulon and Marseille. No Atlantic wall here. From these ports, Patton's 3rd hauling ass straight north

of all people I thought would mention the eruption of Mt Etna as a final dramatic backdrop, I thought it would be Indy

Peenemuende was possibly most important RAF air raid of the war. Delaying V weapons by even month or 2 saved thousands of Londoners.

we need a special episode, maybe even a mini series dedicated to the secret weapons and projects of the allies and axis powers

August 19 was the 80th anniversary of the doomed raid on Dieppe where my local regiment the Essex Scottish got really creamed.

Geoffrey Pyke was a genius, interestingly his cousin, Magnus Pyke was in the ministry of food & was responsible for calculating the calorific intake each people required based on their trade & there fore their allocated ration. Magnus became a bit of a celebrity in the UK in the 1960's 1970's & 1980's with his wildly gesticulating arms and almost frantic delivery on TV. He was so popular, that he featured on Thomas Dolby's 1982 single "She blinded me with science" (which was the theme for the pilot of 'The big bang theory') and in 1975 was named New Scientist magazines third most well known and Characteristic Scientist (Newton and Einstein were First & Second).

This is the latest and greatest yt. I'll see you nex time

There was some element of comical tragedy with the retaking Kiska. Since the allied units were wary of a sudden attack and apprehensive of the land mines and booby traps the Japanese had left. A friendly firefight broke out in the mist when two different units ran into each other. The Allies taking 313 mostly self inflicted casualties to retake an abandoned isle.

Operation Hydra? Call in the Cap'n! 😉 But the Peenemunde operations did highlight the need for bombers and fighters with night-fighting capability. Soon radar started showing up on all kinds of aircraft, with dedicated night fighters like the P-61 in the works.

You still blow me away with your detailed blow by blow. Cheers. Mr. Excitement.

Mythbusters tested Pykrete. It was an intriguing exercise, but not very practical.

My Grandfather was in the Italian campaign. He was a Canadian member of The First Special Service Force (The Black Devil's). They were attached to General Mark Clarke's 5th American Army and there commanding officer was Robert T. Frederick They landed on The Anzio beach head and saw action at the Mussolini Canal , Monte La Difensa, Monte Sammucro The advance to the Tyber and The drive to Rome.

Another excellent episode. Just one small quibble.The town of Lae in PNG is pronounced 'Lay'.

"Hans?" "Yes, Gunther." "We're in the Luftwaffe, right?" "If I recall correctly, that is the force we enlisted in earlier in the war." "Then why are driving in a bloody tank?" "Well.. uhhh..." "Do tanks fly, Hans? Do they drop bombs? Do they make incredible aerobatical maneuvers, except maybe when a turret blows off?" "Nooo....." "Then why is the air force fighting in tanks? Is this why we're not stopping the air raids over the Fatherland? Because we are having a bit of an identity crisis, Hans? Are Those Who Must Be Obeyed operating under the delusion that they're a herd of cud chewing llamas, Hans?" "Gunther, I don't think the Fuhrer and Reichs Air Marshal are quite that far gone." "Well that's bloody reassuring, but that still leaves unanswered questions, Hans. Like why are we in Sicily of all godforsaken places? You can barely ride a donkey in this countryside, so how is a tank "flown" by air force personnel going to any more useful? Everything is upside down here, Hans, everything is floating like a school of dead goldfish." "Gunther, stop asking why things are the way they are. If you don't then you'll see this whole war is insane. And then you'll go insane while we're hundreds of kilometers from home, and then I'll have to shoot you because an insane soldier is a liability to our survival."

The Bomber Mafia by Malcom Gladwell goes into some detail as to what happened with the Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid. One of the two bombardment groups assigned to the mission, under General Curtis LeMay, had practiced taking off in the fog, and were prepared when a thick blanket of it rolled in as per the forecast. The other had not, and delayed their takeoff by three hours. So what was supposed to be a simultaneous attack on two targets, instead, became two raids, hours apart, with plenty of time for the Luftwaffe’s fighters to refuel and rearm, allowing them to badly maul both groups. While we can’t say for certain what the losses would have looked like had both bombardment groups been coordinated better, it’s not hard to imagine them being halved, with the full force of the Luftwaffe being able to hit the formations only once.

The guards tensely wondering wether or not their bosses are shooting at each other seems something straight out of an Armando Iannucci film

Speaking of secret weapons; the V1 and V2 are cool and all that, but will you talk about the lesser known V3 weapon?

This is not a dig at all at TimeGhost, but I'm starting to get exhausted with this war. It must have been like that at the time. No wonder people were so happy when it ended!