Today is November 11, 2022. They fought and some died for their homeland They fought and some died, now it's our land Look at his little child, there's no fear in her eyes Could he not show respect for other dads who have died? Take two minutes, would you mind? It's a pittance of time For the boys and the girls who went over In peace may they rest, may we never Forget why they died It's a pittance of time God forgive me for wanting to strike him Give me strength so as not to be like him My heart pounds in my breast Fingers pressed to my lips My throat wants to bawl out My tongue barely resists But two minutes I will bide It's a pittance of time For the boys and the girls who went over In peace may they rest May we never forget why they died It's a pittance of time Read the letters and poems of the heroes at home They have casualties, battles, and fears of their own There's a price to be paid if you go, if you stay Freedom's fought for and won in numerous ways Take two minutes, would you mind? It's a pittance of time For the boys and the girls all over May we never forget, our young become vets At the end of the line It's a pittance of time It takes courage to fight in your own war It takes courage to fight someone else's war Our peacekeepers tell of their own living hell They bring hope to foreign lands That hate mongers can't kill Take two minutes, would you mind? It's a pittance of time For the boys and the girls who go over In peacetime our best still don battle dress And lay their lives on the line It's a pittance of time In peace may they rest Lest we forget why they died Take a pittance of time kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aNGIkpaqmNuZhaM.html

Thank you for mentioning The 1st Czechoslovak Independent Brigade‘s accomplishment

Anyone interested in a detailed operational n history of the fighting in the Ukraine in 1943 as shown in this episode get Prit Buttar Retribution.

its kyiv not that russian version dumbass, how clear is it that you aren't educated when

KYIV

I was thinking about the slog up the Italian peninsula, Haig and Cadorna would've felt right at home. 😒

On the western front and in Italy maybe, not in the east, that front was much more fluid, especially after the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive became a major turning point in the war there.

In WWI the ratio was 10000 casualties per 100m of advancement.

@@williammerkel1410 Maybe also on the Macedonian front, at least during some parts of the war?

What is the price of a mile?

This is some grzegorz brzęczyszczykiewicz type memery right here

I guess someone watched Ben Shapiro and Lex Friedman

Well the eastern front was evil aginst evil

​@@generalfeldmarschall3781 the entire war is evil against evil. Germany got the concentration camp ideas from the British Empire ( during the Boer war) and America ( treatment of native Americans). At the same time there's a genocide in India causes by Britain (Bengia famine) and Japanese internment camps in the US. But no gas chambers, so I guess they're the good guys?!

​@@generalfeldmarschall3781 I give the soviets a pass for everything except katyn forest.

home by christmas!

Always love reading these stories. Reminds me that real individuals lived through all these events and took part in them. Thanks to your father for his service!

@@theblindlucario5093 Funny thing about the war for my father. He joined in September 1942 and went to Farragut Idaho for training. Since he was an Idaho boy, he got to go home for Christmas 1942. He spent Christmas 1943 at home and also Christmas 1944 due to the damage that his ship suffered off Leyte Gulf, so for the entire war, he was home for Christmas every year. 😄😄😄😄

@@jacqueschouette7474 Glad your dad wasn't injured! I do not understand, though. Was there no other light cruiser for your dad and the crew to be put on? Were all crews bound to one individual ship, and not the ship class? Also, I would understand if it took some time to repair a light cruiser - but it would take a lot of time to go from Bougainville to freaking Idaho! How long could he be home before getting orders that the ship's repair were nearing completion, and he had to take all those trains back to the west coast, and board ships to get to (presumably) Hawaii?? 🤯 Anyhow, still great that he got to spend every Christmas at home!

@@MrNicoJac There isno reason to put them on another ship unless those lack sufficient servicemen. Also as he said, the light cruiser was damaged in early November, so I would guess the guy was back in Idaho by December

They are designed to easily resemble modern headlines.

They don't have to wonder "what'll we do when the war (WW II) is over?" Putin already has another war for them to cover. ☹

@@shivmalik9405 It's a small joke on how things have changed.

@@abnerdoon4902 woosh

It is quite an interesting coincidence that 2 major Ukranian cities were liberated from a fascist invader within the same week, just separated by a century

What untold millions have died for nothing on both sides? and they are now almost back to the starting point in 1939...may the dead rest in peace.

It just goes to show how vast Ukraine is.

@@tigertank06 or just Eastern Europe in general tbh

@@Ronald98 "nothing" is an overstatement. The bloody slaughter is the logical conclusion of 2 diabolical ideologies that eviscerated the dignity and worth of the human being. Both ideologies see the human person as an exploitable cog in the collectivist wheel of a materialistic worldview. It's a warning to humanity that the outcome of secularism leads to the destruction of mankind

@@Ronald98 Well, not for nothing, unless you think the Soviets should have just let the Germans walk in, conquer their whole country, and genocide all of them. But yeah I guess that is basically for no reason right?

That's wonderful man. Happy for you. Have a blast.

The next 15 months will be pretty harsh

1944 was probably the deadliest year in the war. The major difference is that this time it will be the Germans and Japanese who will suffer the most. And China, as Japan will unleash one the three great massive offensives of 1944, next to D-Day and Bagration, Operation Ichi-Go. The one that will savage the Nationalist Armies and leave them ripe for the picking for Mao after the war.

A Texas National Guard Division will be annihilated on Montie Cassino.

The Battle of Hoth 😆 🤣

USSR =/= Russian Federation, everyone needs to know this.

A very famous movie, especially when I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s. The TV stations would play it on rare occasions, usually late at night on a weekend, eliciting many impassioned pleas from kids to be able to stay up and watch it. Parents were usually not very happy about having to stay up late to supervise their kids, and neighbour kids who would invariably be requested for a sleep over. Popcorn and Coca-Cola would abound everywhere! Ahh, those were the days! 👌💘😉😎

Oddly enough the British Dodecanese campaign is much neglected and only sparsely mentioned even on this channel. Interestingly this movie also served as an inspiration for the original Battlestar Galactica double episodes The Gun on Ice Planet Zero.

I read the book of the same name. Great book, even if it isn't too special as a book.

Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas and David Niven, among others, were part of that great cast.

Credits where credits are due, the movie is based on a book by Alistair MacLean

It was Joseph Dietrich but still, pretty cool fact en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Panzer_Army

Could be worse, they could have had a 4th of a Panzer...

And you have to remember: this is the same army that Hitler diverted away from Stalingrad towards the Caucasus We're watching the slow decline of this once mighty army into a tiny shell of its former self (kinda like watching the Eastern Roman Empire shrink to just Constantinople)

Yep

Complete with sugary cereal?

@@Raskolnikov70 I wish! No, at my age more like black coffee & prunes.

The Japanese had such long range bomers !

@@joycechuah6398 Yes and no. As the Japanese envisioned some of their bombers to be used in the long range anti-shipping role. As the British Force Z would discover to their detriment on December 10 1941. On the other hand the distance from Timor to Darwin is not that great to make Japanese bombing impossible. It's also why the Australians considered holding on to the island in 1942, or to support and maintain their troops there as they fought an guerilla war against the Japanese.

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 I wonder why the Americans never placed bombers in Darwin to fight back and also to level the oil fields in the East Indies.

@@joycechuah6398 Too far to reach the oil fields in Sumatra and Borneo. Sumatra could be hit from carriers from the Indian Ocean, but that would require a redeployment of US carriers and British carriers from other theaters that neither could spare for most of the war. And most of the interdiction of Japanese fuel transports to Japan was done via submarines anyway. So why bother dispersing US carriers for that as well. The British would start hitting Sumatra in late 1944 when they could finally redeploy their carriers from Europe, especially the refineries. And even then it was mostly a goodbye hit before those carriers transitioned via Australia to join the US carrier taskforces against Okinawa and Japan.

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 was it too far even for the B 29s ?

You cannot appreciate what a horrible place to fight a war until you see the terrain of Italy. Narrow coastal plains packed with villages and tons of small farms. Small farms meaning lots of wire/wood/stone fences, lots of lemon or orange tree groves. Finding a straight road is hitting the jackpot.!! And then the real hard part....volcanic ridges and mountains that rear up skyward thousands of feet to provide superb observation of the land and way out to sea. I highly recommend visiting Italy. We stayed in Sorrento, Rome and Florence. I'd love to go back and spend more time in Rome and a couple extra days by Naples. Not Naples itself but the area which has Pompeii and Herculaneum which an entire day for each. Rome speaks for itself. Florence is boring, what a waste of time. I got so wrapped up in the ancient history I totally forgot to look for the Anzio and Salerno invasion locations. Rent an apartment if you can, but I can recommend a hotel by Sorrento I really enjoyed. Cheers.!

@@LuvBorderCollies yep. Went to Florence this year actually. I disagree that it's boring

Wait, you were alive in 1943?

@@Ramzi1944 A lot of people are still with us, those that were kids or teens, like my mom. 1943 was not all that long ago, something you discover as you get older.

@@Ramzi1944 My dad was born in 1941. He's 81 now, so, yes, there are people who were alive then (a good number of them old enough to be aware of the war and its progression) who are alive to watch this.

My grandma was born in 1928. Now, she doesn't use computers or smartphones, but still

@@Franfran2424 My mom was born in 1932 and my dad in 1936, in 1943 they were 11 and 7 yrs old. They both use computer and smartphone.

I remember reading somewhere the average "life expectancy" of a WWII infantry soldier was six months. In quotations because they weren't talking about actual lifespan but the amount of time they could keep someone in combat before they had to be rotated out, back to a training facility or rear-area duty far from combat. Frontline combat broke people spiritually if it didn't kill or wound them directly.

@@Raskolnikov70 The US went with a replacement system where new guys were constantly brought in to keep formations at strength, as opposed to the german method of keeping a regiment in the fight until it was too depleted and had to be withdrawn and rebuilt. But soldiers could not be in 6 months of combat. At most one before they needed rest on an individual level.

Soviet infantry battalions had rate of 500% casualties during a war. Usually in 6 months battalions completely renew their personnel.

I heard that the 101th US paratroopers had a casualty rate of 150%... That's a lot!

@@aaronpaul9188 They weren't talking about six straight months of combat, just assignment to a front-line infantry unit - and those get rotated in and out of combat on a regular basis to rest and refit. The article I saw this in was about the development of the US Army's CIB (Combat Infantrymans Badge) and other work being done by psychologists of the day to address the issue of stress casualties, and it was the reason those units had casualty rates well over 100%. Not because people were being killed or injured, they just couldn't handle being in such a high-pressure situation for very long and had to be pulled out and reassigned.

euh Kiev was a part of USSR before the war, then it was occupied, so when the soviets pushed back, they obviously liberated the city (from foreign occupation). Seems like a fine logic to me

@@benismann first if you say kiev it means that you are russian and want to exterminated Ukrainians, it is Kyiv. second, it was under occupation before and after the war. #Kyivnotkiev

@@lilandry it was not under military occupation before WW2. Rightly or wrongly it was part of the USSR. Second, we've always spelled it Kiev in the west. That doesn't make us pro Russia now. Third, this logic implies you agree with Ukrainian collaborators for the Nazis. In ww2 there were no neutral sides. You were either with or against Germany. You support those who were with Germany.

@@user-rr2eo9sk4w and you jut forgot the Holodomor where genocide of Ukrainians made under soviet occupation. There was Ukrainian Rebel Army who were fighting against both soviet and nazi to gain freedom. And in 1939 Poland were invaded by both soviet union and third reich, but somewhy soviet union is called ally to Poland. explain that who have liberated them? it was one occupation substituted by another. And kiev is translation from russian which implied that you lean to pro russia view. Kyiv this is how our capital were and will be named.

@@lilandry The Holodomor was evil. It doesn't justify siding with Nazi Germany. The Holodomor doesn't change the fact that millions of more Ukrainians fought for the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian separatists/nationalists fought with the Nazis when it was convenient and took part in genocidal massacres of Jews and other Slavs. As far as Poland is concerned, the USSR unjustly invaded Poland in 1939, however, Poland did need the USSR'S help to beat Nazi Germany. Germany, unlike the Soviet Union, was intent on annihilating all Slavs. The USSR was wrong to invade Poland from the start and impose a communist government on them. Poland is different however because Poland was an independent country prior to the war. Ukraine was a part of the USSR. As far as the spelling, here in the west it has always been Kief or Kiev. That's not pro Russian bias. That's just how we spell things.

"Aunt UNRRA" as it was called in post-war Poland, where a lot of UNRRA transports were sent.

The wildest difference between ww1 and 2 from what I can see is, the casualties sustained in paeschendale by the British empire. Is roughly the same as the total casualties for ww2. So a single battle was casualties wise worse in ww1 for the empire than the entire ww2.

Technically definitely improved, we all had new weapons and wanted to try them out on each other 🤦‍♂️

And I don't think Hoth was that great anyway. He was good, but no much more than that.

That's a new one to me. Good story. Reminds me of the horse during the Korean War that transported loads by himself between units. Who doesn't like a bear cub growing up in the army story? 😊

@@LuvBorderCollies Indeed - interesting to learn about that...

Except it's reversed

@@diagatjl6096 ok vatnik.

@@diagatjl6096 Putins playing the role of hitler

@@scottaznavourian3720 More like Stalin but incompetent

@@diagatjl6096 putin needs zhukov...

31,5 knots is a very good performance.

Never heard of her, thanks for the info!

Interestingly she would end up in the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian ocean and participated in the liberation of Singapore. Although her performance was uneven. Suffering from boiler problems, dispersion of main battery shells and biofouling of her hell that necessitated frequent refits.

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 She also had a buckled keel from a British aerial torpedo, which the Americans were unable to work out of her. Also, to add to her already terrible dispersion problems, the Americans refused to fit her with their newest gunlaying radar for her main battery, although her optical equipment was reportedly pretty good. Boiler problems could honestly have been expected, given that her Sural boilers wete brand new.

The antiair battery was impressive...

I mentioned my Choctaw uncle in the original post, but remembered he was a mule skinner in 10th Mountain.

Native Americans/First Nations.

The 45th was primarily Oklahoma and Arizona National Guard, with the majority of its force being Native Americans from Oklahoma. Before 1940 its divisional badge was a swastika (a holy symbol for many Native American nations), but this was replaced with a Thunderbird in light of events in Europe.

@@petergray7576 That is right. Almost forgot about the swastika. You can still find one at the abandoned Indian school, Chillocco.

@@shutyamouf2 It does to me and my tribe.

Join the club!

Red Army exploiting good offensive campaign season in late summer 1943 when it had a chance to recapture as much as territory as possible to get over Dniepr river and reach Pripet Marshes when German reserves were temporarily exhaused after their failure in Battle of Kursk

They have Hitler to thank for their progress.

The Germans severely underestimated the importance of logistics and cohesive lines....and the Soviets' willingness to fight like mad no matter the situation.

craziest thing is the Axis army in the eastern front 1943 is larger than 1941 (3.9 million vs 3.87 million). So the red army was pushing back against higher numbers than when they were retreating from initially, showing what was learnt through the trauma of the first 2 years.

WWI was something. They were learning as they went along.

You can start at Episode 1 and pretend you don't know what happens next, going forward week by week. Go searching for it. Hence I'm wondering, like the Japanese General Staff, where the hell that big US landing force that just left Bougainville is headed ...

But unfortunately to Hitler... Stalin don't give a damn about losing more than 1.000.000 soldiers in the next 1 year and a half... Stalin has a lot of soldiers...

There was absolutely no chance the axis would have won this war. What happened at the start of the war was the best possible outcome for them and they still lost.

@@johndanes2294 I know. The Axis we're doomed. But I liked to keep this up from dramatic purposes. Really gives the sense of dread and prospect of victory diminished lost. I say the war, 1943, had seen the Axis's last chance for a major victory. Kursk, Sicily, and the Central Solomon.

what is an axis?

I've got ten bob on it being over by Christmas. I haven't totally given up hope.

@@himoffthequakeroatbox4320 i'll take you on that bet! 😅😂

@@user-jw9qy3uh6h the axis upon which the world shall turn.

@@local_therapist8637 right

They used a grab bag of steamers, Marinefährprahm (landing craft), torpedo boats and trawlers. Unfortunately the British had scattered their troops all over the island, the Italians were short on ammunition, and the Germans had air superiority. Under these kind of circumstances the Germans could land a sizeable force even with a scratch fleet.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinef%C3%A4hrprahm

So essentially, both sides had fee resources to work with - but the Germans had more. Big fish by virtue of a small pond. It really sucks being relegated to a backwater of the war. The station is important enough to send some schmucks there, but not important enough to properly supply them. What a war.

@@fuzzydunlop7928 You just described the entire North African campaign from 1940-42. It got a lot of press at the time because it was the most active front anywhere (except the Pacific after Dec. 1941) but the actual numbers of units fighting on the front lines is ridiculously small compared to the battles we're seeing now.

@@Raskolnikov70 Like the 8th Air Force got so much press because most of the press reporters were in Britain, not North Africa.

📞 👀

We're at the point in the war where the Navy just brings a bunch of airfields with them wherever they need them. The carrier fleet is finally being rebuilt.

Reminds me of a story my father-in-law told me. He was on an island overlooking another island which had an airstrip on it. A fighter plane, probably a Wildcat, came back trailing smoke headed for the airstrip. He was so close he could see the pilot struggling with the plane to maintain control and make the runway. But he could the plane was losing altitude too fast and the plane smacked into the 100 foot cliff below the runway's end. It burst into flame and fell into the ocean. He felt sorry for that guy who tried so hard to bring his plane back but failed. My father-in-law was on a Yard Minesweeper. Being a minesweeper and a tiny ship they bounced around all over the So.Pacific island chains. I always wondered where this airstrip was that he witnessed this event? I also wonder where in the Philippines he was when they caught a Jap sub on the surface and sank it. Millions of war stories never told or recorded.

@@Raskolnikov70 That and the SeaBees are finally up and running. Now they just need to grab a random island in a good spot, drop a Seabee battalion on it and watch a new airfield spring up a few weeks later.

The Pacific War was primarily a naval war, and naval strategy is built strategy - to fight on water, one must build a navy, and ships take a while to build. The US shipbuilding program at this point in the timeline is turning out new ships at the fastest rate ever seen, and new fleets of unprecedented size are getting into action. The battle for Guadalcanal was a fairly even fight, making the battle long and difficult for the Allies, but since then the fights are growing increasingly lopsided against the Japanese. The disparity will only grow going forward. And in addition to the Allies' quantity advantages, the quality of Allied weapons is improving across the board.

@@danielmocsny5066 the guy who commented rates the ties Indy wears every weekly episode. That's why

I can imagine chat spamming the live feed with Steiner memes once Indy mentions him.

If they really need wanted to save Berlin from the red army they should have used their last offensive against the Soviets instead of the allies during the battle of the bulge. It was a wider front on the Soviet side but if they concentrated the attack in the north they could have saved the Courland pocket and have gotten it’s help to defend Eastern Germany. Though that would have meant the allies would have taken the Ruhr even sooner, but at least that’s better than the what the Soviets did to Berlin by raping it’s entire population

While playing Silent Hunter 4,I really got to experience how wast the Pacific actually is,granted you can speed up time in the game immensely.

Plus the misfired Battle for Makin, and the weird Battle of Abemama.

We cover the war week by week. When it happens we’ll cover it.

Advance and First Attack on Berthardt Line (26 October - 10 November 1943) (2) The occupation of XIV Panzer Korps’ Mignano Gap positions would have to be carried out without Hube, who would be leaving for the Russian front on 28 October. His deputy, General Balck, would accompany him. Westphal had recommended Lt-General von Senger as Hube’s successor and Kesselring, remembering how well von Senger had done in Sicily and elsewhere, approved the choice. When the Axis broke up von Senger had been sent to Corsica to supervise the surrender of the four Italian divisions occupying the island. The divisions refused to surrender. Using the one German regiment available - SS troops - von Senger attacked them. After a week’s skirmishing the Italian Corps Commander surrendered. Von Senger received a telegram from Hitler ordering him to shoot all the Italian officers in both divisions. Like Kesselring, von Senger ignored the order. Then Corsica was invaded by the Free French. Von Senger evacuated his forces, which included 10,000 men from the Luftwaffe, to the mainland. Allied bombers harried the convoy and sunk several ships, but Hitler received a report saying that all German troops had reached the mainland safely. Hitler sent von Senger another telegram, congratulating him on the way he’d handled the evacuation, but blacklisted him for failing to obey orders to shoot the Italian officers. This didn’t surprise von Senger. He had never joined the Nazi party and had little time for Hitler. He much preferred his friends in the UK. In 1912 he had won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. During his two years there he became deeply attached to England and Englishmen and remained an Anglophile for the rest of his life. Von Vietinghoff and von Senger quickly established an excellent rapport. Von Vietinghoff remarked to his new Korps’ Commander, ‘You can’t fight and dig defences at the same time. They don’t really understand that at the top.’ On or around 29 October the two generals inspected the Mignano Gap’s defences. Those on the all-important Monte Cesima were hardly begun, let alone completed.* On the Camino Massif and Monte Sammucro von Senger noted ‘the futility of our positions, which consisted of single strongpoints, all weak and uncoordinated’. The loss of such positions would not be so important as the loss of the shelters built near them. Von Senger knew from his experiences in Russia just how important such shelters were in winter. ‘If troops are unable to find shelters they will not defend their positions well … they always think that conditions in the rear are bound to get better. This frame of mind is always disastrous.’ Ironically 10th Army engineers and the Todt workers had made an excellent job of Mignano Gap’s second line of defences. On Monte Rotondo and Cannavinelle Hill they had constructed inter-connecting bunkers well protected with barbed wire. The sheer size of the Camino Massif and Monte Sammucro and lack of time would account for the failure to build a large network on these mountain masses, but why they had been ordered to complete the defences of Monte Rotondo and Cannavinelle Hill before starting on Monte Cesima is inexplicable. Von Senger at once put in a priority order for dynamite, crowbars and spades - Italian ones bought on the open market. German-issue spades had proved ineffectual during the retreat, so that all infantry units in XIV Panzer Korps occupying the mountains would be able to make their own defensive positions. During the last week of October the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division realigned itself in front of the Camino Massif, and the bulk of the Hermann Göring Division withdrew from the Line. 3rd Panzer Grenadiers’ 8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment took over the defences of Mignano and Monte Cesima; the boundary line between them and the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment passed over the crest of Monte Sammucro. Each regiment considered the responsibility for defending it lay with the other. In the end a disgruntled platoon from the 29th Regiment occupied it and the 3rd Battalion, 6th Parachute Regiment, moved up to support the Division. British 7th Armoured Division, which was advancing towards Mondragone, and British 46th Division, on their right, encountered only light rearguard opposition. As 15th Panzer Grenadier Division units opposite them retreated towards their positions on the Camino Massif the two British Divisions suddenly found they had no enemy on their front at all. By 31 October patrols from both divisions had reached the Garigliano. They reported extensive defences on the enemy’s side of the river. British 56th Division, which had three of their brigades - 168th, 169th and 201st - in the Line ran into much tougher opposition. But on 30 October 168th Brigade broke through 15th Panzer Grenadier divisional rearguards at Teano and chased them back to Roccamonfina, which they took on 1 November. Kesselring blamed von Senger for this ‘dent’ in the Line. On 2 November 168th Brigade took the 3,297 foot Monte Santa Croce (not to be confused with the mountain of the same name north east of Monte Corno) and the last of the 15th Panzer Grenadier divisional rearguards retreated towards the Camino Massif. The two battalions already occupying the massif - III/129th Panzer Grenadiers on Monte Camino and I/104th Panzer Grenadiers on Monte La Difensa - had made good use of their ‘do-it-yourself’ kit. Von Senger, who visited the battalions shortly before the Allies attacked, was delighted by the way the troops had blown themselves dugouts out of the rock ‘shaped like swallow nests’, then covered them with railway ties/sleepers and rock. The small bunkers had a much wider field of fire than those made by General Bessel’s engineers and were well coordinated. Countdown to Cassino , Battle of Mignano Gap

Advance and First Attack on Berthardt Line (26 October - 10 November 1943) (3) In VI US Corps Sector General Lucas was playing himself in. At Anzio the British war correspondent Wynford Vaughan-Thomas described Lucas as a ‘nice old pussycat’ and entries in his diary back up the description. He was very concerned for the welfare of his men. His appreciation of 5th Army’s strength at Mignano Gap was much sharper than Clark’s. Clark was always worrying about German counter-attacks. Lucas was confident that, if they came, US artillery would break them up. He was right. After he had briefed his divisional generals on his plans for VI Corps’ attack on Mignano Gap, and they had objected to them, he called them ‘primadonnas … of great combat experience’. Lucas was prepared to let his generals have their head if they could persuade him they were right. His plans for the attack on Mignano Gap were straightforward. Truscott’s 3rd Division was heading straight for Mignano Gap and would continue to do so. 4th Rangers would attempt to infiltrate behind the enemy lines in the 3rd Division’s sector and aid its attack. US 34th and 45th Division would cross the Volturno again and attack XIV Panzer Korps’ left flank. The 45th Division would take Venafro then head for the village of Pozzili, which Lucas believed to be the key point of the enemy’s defences. The 34th Division would attack the villages and mountains north of Pozzili, right on the boundary between the 3rd Panzer Grenadiers and 305th Infantry Division. (10th Army commanders were always concerned at the way both 5th and 8th Army Divisions attacked the boundaries between their divisions. They thought it inspired guess-work.) 504 Parachute Regiment would cut the Venafro-Isernia road and protect VI Corps’ right flank. The US 3rd Division began its advance into Mignano Gap on 31 October. 8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment had a desperate time trying to contain them. The 3rd Division’s 15th Regiment, commanded by Lt-Colonel Ashton Manhart, swept them off the 2,000-foot mountain behind the village of Pietravairano then advanced up the Teano-Venafro road. Here they were held up by a large road block. As soon as they had captured it they were driven out by a counter-attack. It took the 15th Regiment’s leading companies the rest of the day to retake the block. Both sides used the bayonet. On the 15th Regiment’s left flank Colonel Sherman’s 7th Regiment crossed Highway Six and took Monte Friello. It was not defended but the local inhabitants warned the US troops that the Germans had spent days mining the mountain. Pioneers from the 7th’s 1st Battalion removed 3,000 S-mines from its slopes. The company of the 8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment defending the area retreated into another minefield nobody had warned them of and suffered a number of dead and wounded. With McCreery’s permission Truscott ordered 7th Regiment to swing left into X Corps’ zone of advance and attack the lower slopes of Monte La Difensa. Von Vietinghoff had kept to Kesselring’s retreat schedules most admirably. The Bernhardt positions had not been occupied until the night of 30/31 October, but fighting patrols from Lt-Colonel Manhart’s 15th Regiment entered the Mignano Gap during the night of 1 November. When von Vietinghoff informed Kesselring of their presence the Field Marshal was furious. On 2 November he sent von Vietinghoff a signal addressed to ‘The Commander of the 10th Army’. The signal began: ‘The last two days have proved to me that the Command is not being carried out with the energy and far sightedness required by the situation. My own personal intervention was necessary to point out the shortcomings of the work on the Bernhardt positions. In spite of my repeated observations it has not been possible up till now to develop the most important artillery positions in the manner which would have been necessary and feasible’. Kesselring went on to criticize the way the 10th Army was continuing to use units he had earmarked for Army reserve, and von Vietinghoff’s failure to prevent US troops entering Mignano Gap. Von Vietinghoff’s reaction to the signal had a touch of Verdi about it. In a long letter to Kesselring he rebutted all criticisms in considerable detail, to his own and any uninterested party’s satisfaction. He then informed Kesselring he was taking six weeks’ sick leave and would leave for Germany on 4 November.31 The III/8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment had been given the task of defending Monte Cesima. The battalion had never been in action but it was exceptionally strong - 508 rifles. The combined rifle strength of I and II/8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment totalled 447. The CO of the III battalion positioned one of his companies on the summit of Monte Cesima and placed the rest on the ridges of the eastern approaches to the mountain. During the night of 2/3 November the whole of Lt-Colonel Manhart’s 15th Regiment advanced through Mignano Gap, outflanking the enemy companies round the base of Monte Cesima and forcing them to withdraw to new positions on Monte Lungo. Communications between III/8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and XIV Panzer Korps headquarters broke down. Von Vietinghoff spent the morning of 3 November discussing the defences of Mignano Gap with von Senger, emphasizing the importance of Monte Cesima.33 Von Senger noted in his war diary: ‘It was certainly right to hold the Bernhardt Line as long as possible, thereby gaining time for building up the Gustav Line’. It was only during the afternoon of 3 November that von Senger discovered that Monte Cesima was now held by a single company of the III/8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment. When he informed Kesselring, the Commander in Chief made scathing remarks about how easily one company of troops could be ‘swept away’ and ordered III/6th Parachute Regiment to fight their way through to the summit of Monte Cesima. The counter-attack would go in at first light on 4 November. Von Vietinghoff’s letter arrived at Frascati on 4 November. His announcement that he was taking six weeks’ sick leave must have come as a considerable shock to Kesselring. He had lost his Army Commander when he most needed him. III/6th Parachute Regiment’s counter-attack had been broken up by US artillery. The battalion had taken heavy losses and was in no state to mount another attack. Von Senger had no other troops available to take III/6th Parachute Regiment’s place. It was only a matter of time before Monte Cesima was captured. The way in which von Vietinghoff had answered Kesselring’s strictures - his precise explanations of why things had not gone according to plan, explanations that Kesselring had not waited to hear - made Kesselring belatedly aware that his Army Commander was much better informed than he had been. Instead of sacking von Vietinghoff for what was clearly a diplomatic illness, Kesselring informed OKW that his Army Commander was taking sick leave and asked for the best available general to act as 10th Army’s temporary commander. In the meantime Kesselring took over command of the Army himself. During the night of 4/5 November the company of the 8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment defending Monte Cesima slipped through the US 3rd Division’s lines and joined the rest of their battalion on Monte Lungo. The loss of Monte Cesima sent shock waves through the whole of 10th Army. When General Wentzell rang Westphal and told him that the paratroopers attack had failed, Westphal exclaimed, ‘Mein Gott!’ ‘Yes, even the most aggressive troops fail sometimes,’ Wentzell remarked. Wentzell’s conversation with Colonel von Bonin, von Senger’s Chief of Staff, went as follows. Colonel von Bonin: ‘How the position was lost is unknown to Graeser’. Wentzell: ‘It must be investigated to see if those people fought at all. I’m under the impression they have all stopped fighting.’ Colonel von Bonin: ‘That’s highly possible’. Later that morning, 4 November, XIV Panzer Korps’ headquarters had another shock. 4th Rangers appeared at the bottom of Cannavinelle Hill like dragons’ teeth springing up overnight. With the aid of Italian guides the Rangers had infiltrated the enemy lines and were preparing to attack the mountain, held by II/8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment. German fighting patrols from other units who were sent to sort out the Rangers suffered heavy losses. At 11 am the Rangers attacked Cannavinelle Hill. They soon discovered that they were up against a resolute enemy in well-prepared positions. When they were half way up the mountain the Panzer Grenadiers counter-attacked and forced the Rangers to retreat, but not before they had killed or wounded thirty of the enemy. The Rangers dug in at the bottom of the mountain. They had lost seven men killed, nineteen wounded and twenty-two missing. Known enemy dead totalled forty-two. Countdown to Cassino , Batle of Mignano Gap - Alex Bowlby

Advance and First Attack on Berthardt Line (26 October - 10 November 1943) (4) On the night of 3/4 November the US 34th and 45th Divisions had crossed the Volturno for the last time. The 179th Regiment, 45th Division, drove back elements of III Battalion, 6th Parachute Regiment, who were having a bad day, in front of Venafro, brushed aside opposition in the town, then took to their vehicles and raced up the Venafro-Pozzili road. In Pozzili they took out several Spandaus, then charged the battalion of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment who were defending the hill overlooking the village. Von Senger, who happened to be visiting the battalion, was impressed by the way the US troops pressed home their attack. They were no longer afraid of hand-to-hand fighting, as they had been in Sicily. But as the Panzer Grenadiers withdrew from the hill and von Senger headed back to his headquarters at Roccasecca he knew that XIV Panzer Korps was in trouble.37 Lucas had been correct in assuming that Pozzili was the key point in the Korps’ left wing, and there were no other troops between Pozzili and Cassino. Back at Roccasecca von Senger discovered that the situation was much graver than he’d realized. The US 34th Division had turned the flank of the 305th German Division, just as Lucas had hoped it would. The 34th and 45th Divisions could now mountaineer their way to Cassino, assisted by 504 Parachute Regiment, who had entered Isernia without meeting any opposition. Von Senger contacted Kesselring and informed him that XIV Panzer Korps’ left flank was wide open. Kesselring at once ordered Major General Count von Lüttwitz to switch his 26th Panzer Division from the Adriatic sector to Mignano Gap. The 29th Panzers were the best armoured division in Italy. And it possessed two Panzer Grenadier Regiments. It could, and did, turn its reconnaissance battalion into infantry as well. Its leading Panzer Grenadier Regiment reached the Pozzili sector in the late afternoon of 5 November. They at once counter-attacked. The attack was broken up by US artillery but by the following morning the 26th Panzer Division had seven infantry battalions in the line. The crisis on XIV Panzer Korps’ left flank was over. Von Senger could concentrate on the one building up in its centre. Late on 4 November a patrol from 1st Battalion, US 15th Regiment reported Monte Cesima clear of the enemy. Forward observers who took up positions on top of Monte Cesima reported that they could see for miles. XIV Panzer Korps centre’s second line of defences - Monte Lungo, Monte Rotondo, San Pietro - was open to inspection, as were the enemy’s lines of communications. Clark and Truscott went up Monte Cesima to see things for themselves. Clark, still looking for ways of using his armour, noted the ‘flat lands’ beyond San Pietro - ‘flatter lands’ would have been more like it - and decided that San Pietro was the key to the enemy defences. It would have to be taken before he could use his tanks. So would Monte Rotondo and Monte Lungo. Truscott, whose 15th Regiment had discovered that Cannavinelle Hill had also been abandoned by the enemy, saw Monte Rotondo as the enemy’s second Monte Cesima, its one surviving barrier to stop his division’s advance. Truscott decided to use his 15th Regiment to take Monte Rotondo and Monte Lungo and then unleash his 30th Regiment, back in reserve, to exploit the breakthrough. He put the plan to Lucas later that day and Lucas approved it. But as Truscott was setting things in motion, briefing Colonel Manhart for an attack on the two mountains on 6 November, Clark also visited Lucas’s headquarters. Lucas told him that Truscott was preparing to attack Monte Rotondo and Monte Lungo, but not that he planned to use the 30th Regiment to exploit any breakthrough. Clark suggested simultaneous attacks - the 15th Division approaching from the south east and the 180th Regiment, 45th Division from the north-east. Lucas, who wanted to use the 180th Regiment to attack Monte Corno and Monte Santa Croce, suggested that Truscott’s 30th Regiment should be bussed round to the 180th’s sector and carry out a simultaneous attack with the 15th Regiment and Clark agreed to the change of plans. When Lucas rang Truscott to tell him the news Truscott realized from Lucas’s nervous tone of voice that something was wrong. Lucas told him that Clark had decided on simultaneous attacks and that he had ordered the 30th Regiment to be bussed round to 180th Regiment’s sector. Truscott was distraught. He reminded Lucas that he had approved his plans for the 30th Regiment and that Clark’s plan would wreck his division’s chances of exploiting any breakthrough. He asked permission to plead his case with Clark. Lucas said, ‘That would put me in a helluva position’. It certainly would have. Truscott, who never discovered that it was Lucas who had queered his pitch and not Clark, had to accept the fact that his plans ‘were all shot’. But he pointed out to Lucas that it would take at least forty-eight hours to mount simultaneous attacks on Monte Rotondo. The need to keep up the pressure on the enemy was paramount. Truscott asked Lucas to let him attack Monte Rotondo on 6 November, using one battalion from the 30th Regiment, whilst a battalion from 15th Regiment tackled Monte Lungo. Lucas agreed to the plans. On the night of 5/6 November the 30th Regiment was bussed round to the 180th Regiment’s sector. There would be no time for them to reconnoitre Monte Rotondo before they attacked it, something Truscott was bitter about even before his men went in.39 After a run-of-the-mill support barrage the 2nd Battalion, 30th Regiment attacked the mountain on the morning of 6 November. The battalion defending Monte Rotondo - II/8th Regiment Panzer Grenadiers - called for DF. It was the heaviest the US troops had ever encountered but they kept going. There was a touch of the Somme about the attack. When the GIs closed with the enemy they found them in deep inter-connecting dugouts protected by uncut barbed wire. After suffering heavy casualties from small arms fire they broke. The 1st Battalion, 15th Regiment’s attack on Monte Lungo was equally unsuccessful. At nightfall, as both US Regimental Commanders were planning further attacks and the 2nd Battalion, 30th Regiment were sleeping things off near the LOD a strong enemy fighting patrol made its way down Monte Rotondo. After cutting the 2nd Battalion’s communications wire they slipped past some dozy sentries and shot up men asleep in their bivouacs. They then withdrew. But the patrol had by no means finished with the 30th Regiment. Its 1st Battalion was occupying Cannavinelle Hill. The enemy patrol, who knew the exact lay of the land, moved up the mountain, crept past some more sleepy sentries, then used up their ammunition on other doughboys sleeping in their bivouacs. Such a magnificent raid shows what the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division was capable of at its best. All honour to the men who made it. Staff officers like Colonel von Bonin were ignorant in more ways than one. The failure of the attacks on Monte Rotondo and Monte Lungo, the retributions exacted by the enemy, and intelligence reports quoting firsthand descriptions of the enemy’s defences on Monte Rotondo, brought home to Truscott what the regiments were up against. He told Lucas he would need very heavy artillery support for his second attack on Monte Rotondo. Three battalions of divisional artillery would be nothing like enough. He wanted six battalions of 155 MM and two battalions of Corps 240 mm. Truscott, at his most demanding, was a hard man to argue with. Lucas agreed to his requests. Truscott, still not happy about simultaneous attacks on Monte Rotondo - one of his battalions could end up shooting the other - said he still wished to use the 30th Regiment to attack Monte Rotondo whilst the 15th Regiment dealt with Monte Lungo. Lucas agreed to let him do so. By now Lucas had realized that his 34th and 45th Divisions had broken through the enemy front at Pozzili on 4 November. In a diary entry of 6 November he attributes the failure of the divisions to exploit their breakthrough to ‘too few and too tired troops’. He had yet to learn that it had been the arrival of the 26th Panzer Divisions that had prevented his divisions mountaineering their way to Cassino. In an afterthought to his 6 November entry† he remarks that the stalemate that followed ‘allowed the Germans to develop the Cassino defences into ones of formidable strength’. It was not inappropriate that the order confirming Kesselring as Supreme Commander came through on 6 November. Hitler sent Rommel to supervise the building of the Atlantic Wall. Countdown to Cassino , Battle of Mignano Gap - Alex Bowlby

Unless uncle Stalin can run from the Dnieper to Berlin in a single month, I don't think that this war will be over by christmas 😅 maybe next christmas buddy!

All jokes aside, I'm looking forward to Indy's take on how the Germans stopped this advance. It seems like the Soviets have been on an unstoppable tear since Citadel fell apart a few months back. Someone not privy to the events as they happened would easily expect them to be in Berlin in a few months at this rate.

I think Anzio has better prosepcts at this stage ...

Eighth Army Advance from Trigno River to Sangro River ( October - November 1943) A new plan was cast with 36th Brigade, to which was added 6th Inniskillings, supported by tanks of 46th Royal Tanks, of 23rd Armoured Brigade, and an artillery programme including not only the divisional artillery but three additional field regiments and three medium regiments. D-Day was set for 3 November with 36 Brigade directed on San Salvo and the Buonanotte canal north of the town. On the coast, some four miles distant, 11th Brigade would attack San Salvo railway station. The Royal Navy was to contribute two destroyers and some light craft to simulate a landing while bombarding Vasto and other targets. This was intended to engage coastal defence guns and distract 3/2nd Panzer Regiment from the main effort. Further diversion was provided by six Bofors guns of 49th Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) Regiment and the Kensingtons. To the left of the real attack, the Bofors would fire tracer on fixed lines while the Kensingtons would create much noise with mortars and machine guns, thereby making the Germans believe that an attack was coming from that sector. Such diligent planning deserved to be successful and so it proved. The attack by 36th Brigade, led by 5th Buffs and 6th Inniskillings with two tank squadrons, struck at the junction of two German battalions. Allied aircraft strafed enemy positions and, with German communications disrupted, San Salvo and the Buonanotte canal were in 36th Brigade’s hands by noon. At the railway station 11th Brigade met tough opposition and then a counter-attack that was beaten back by artillery and 46th Royal Tanks. By last light the Germans, abandoning their positions, were drawing back towards Vasto. But this was to be a fighting retreat since the German commander wished to keep Eighth Army from Vasto as long as possible. A rearguard group stopped the West Kents’ advance beyond San Salvo but the Argylls then forced that group to withdraw after a very confused encounter. By first light on 4 November it was obvious that the Germans were in retreat and Evelegh ordered his division to follow them up. Thus, by 9 November, the Battleaxe Division was deployed along the Sangro from Paglieta to Monte Calvo. To the left of 78th Division, V Corps’ front was extended by 8th Indian Division, which had 19th Brigade south-west of Atessa, 17th Brigade, which had moved up on 78th’s left flank, at Gissi and 21st Brigade covering the left flank between Castiglione and Torrebruna. Eighth Indian Division had been deployed about ten miles upstream on the Trigno, on 78th’s left flank as the latter prepared for its renewed attack on San Salvo. On the night of ½ November the Indians crossed the Trigno under an umbrella of fire provided by their own divisional artillery, an additional field regiment and a medium regiment. The divisional objective was to cut the lateral road from Vasto to Isernia, and 19 Brigade struck for the hills at Tufillo and Monte Farano while 21st Brigade made for Celenza and Torrebruna. Tufillo was held by 3rd Parachute Regiment whose soldiers were not prepared to yield any ground as 19th Brigade attacked their positions on the 2nd. The day ended in stalemate following several attempts by the Frontier Force Rifles to get into Tufillo via a wooded spur, and three counter-attacks by the defenders. To the left 5th Essex were also stalled. Brigadier Dobree, commanding 19th Brigade, sent 3/8th Punjabis to support the Frontier Force Rifles in the small hours of the next morning. The Punjabis suffered from fierce mortar fire and Dobree then opted for a night attack on ¾ November which led to a series of vicious small-scale battles. Still the Germans held fast. As Indian pressure continued the paras began thinning out, following their corps commander’s orders, and 19 Brigade was able to occupy Monte Farano and Tufillo on the 5th. In stark contrast to their comrades’ experience, 21st Brigade met no serious opposition on the advance to Celenza. While 78th and 8th Indian Divisions had been pushing forward, XIII Corps had been involved in diversionary operations, having been ordered by Montgomery to draw German attention inland as V Corps prepared for operations on the right flank. XIII Corps was to perform this diversionary task by attacking on the axis Vinchiaturo-Isernia. Weather conditions and demolitions slowed the operations of both 1st Canadian and 5th British Divisions but, by 24 October, the Canadian 2nd Brigade had cleared Colle d’Anchise and Boiano, while 1st Brigade went on to clear the high ground twixt Molise and Torella. This had been achieved by the 27th before, next day, 5th British Division passed through 2nd Brigade en route to Isernia. Montgomery wanted Isernia to deprive Tenth German Army of a principal front-line communications centre; its possession would also open the way to Eighth and Fifth Army troops linking up once the latter had cleared the Volturno valley. Eighth Army in Italy , Long , Hard Slog - Richard Doherty

Sangro is just a name. They really spent that time on the pull 😊

@Retired Bore My respects to your father

I hope April fools doesn't make the cut into a serious documentary

Texans are not.

While promising, the Army Corps of Engineers' radical idea to construct their pontoon bridges out of dead Texans instead of the usual floats or shallow-draft boats (to free up critical war material) - did not hold up under field-testing. :/

They would make excellent locations for Allied air bases, for land-based planes to support the invasion of France. Probably what Germany was thinking at the time, although the Allies probably didn't think it was worth the effort to invade them, set up bases, and then just move them right away as Allied forces advanced inland.

1) already talked about that in the d day hype. 2) shouldn’t have cause it’s in the future in our time line.

@@Raskolnikov70 main issue with using them as airbases is you can almost carpet bomb each island with a single bomber. As I recall, using them as airbases was considered both before evacuation, and pre D day, with the AirPower issues being a key reason why they chose not to.

@@Southsideindy Thank you very much for this reply! Just to clarify, I wasn’t saying you should have talked about them in this episode, I was just wondering if, when you have the white lines marking what the Atlantic wall is, whether that white line should also have “circles” or a “bulge” in the line marking the Chanel islands as part of the Atlantic wall for the map. But I can get why not and it doesn’t matter much either way Keep up the great work guys :)

@@Thelionpaladin I'd think that would be an issue with any air base(s) the Allies set up in Europe after the invasion, assuming the Luftwaffe still had the ability to conduct raids like that in the face of massive Allied air superiority. They would be safe from ground attack though, in the event the invasion went badly and the Allies had to pull back from German ground advances. I'm trying to think of it from the Germans' perspective since they're the ones spending the resources to fortify the islands, ask what they might be afraid of even if the Allies considered and rejected the idea. From the Allied perspective, it seems like a waste of men and material to invade them only to abandon them after a few months because they were planning on swiftly taking France and heading for Berlin.

Camino = path/walking path

@@Franfran2424 wooosh