Back in the spring, we decided to reduce the number of specials we were uploading. We did this mainly because we wanted to keep producing our core content at a high quality during a time of difficulty in both the economy in general and the KZfaq world specifically. Those difficulties haven't really got any easier, but we've decided to return to producing more specials anyway. We want to new audiences and keep giving our current audience the holistic coverage of the War they deserve. It's been a challenge to get this part of our work up and running again but we're on the right track. You might have noticed more specials coming out recently anyway and you'll be seeing a lot more of them soon with topics ranging from the Allied Polish Forces to Himmler and his Neo-Paganism. In the new year, we'll be producing even more nonserial episodes to take our reportage to new heights. Make sure you check your subscription feeds so you can watch the latest! As with everything else we do, upping our volume in this way wouldn't be possible without the TimeGhost Army. Our community has always been the reason why we're able to do what we do, especially now that ad revenue from KZfaq has plummeted so much. A big shout out to them and thanks to all of you for watching. Sign up at: bit.ly/WW2_221_PI - Francis, Editorial Lead

Never attribute to conspiracy events that can be chalked up to incompetence.

2:42 The "good old Lexington" was sunk at Coral Sea in 1942. The USS Lexington in Task Force 50 is one of the four Essexes (the others being USS Essex herself, USS Yorktown, and USS Bunker Hill). The other old carrier in the force is the USS Enterprise.

What I find surprisingly is that almost killing FDR is somehow only one massive blunder in the list of blunders, incompetences and bad luck in general pulled off by the crew of the USS William D. Porter. Even the reason the commander of it didn't wanted to break radio silence is because they had accidentally did it before, so he wanted to avoid another bashing on top of the one for the accidental live torpedo.

An interesting thing to note on November 16 1943 is that the English village of Tyneham will begin eviction of its inhabitants by the British War Office, as they had acquired the village as well as the surrounding areas for use as firing ranges for training troops. This eviction was supposed to be temporary for the duration of the war, but its inhabitants would never return as the British Army made a compulsory purchase order on the land and remains in use as a military training ground ever since.

The William D Porter's career is one heck of an adventure tbh.

The funniest naval blunder since "Do you see torpedo boats?"

Liberty ships featured pretty often in my engineering classes this semester. Especially the brittle material some were made of, and how they would just snap clean in half in the Arctic waters from the cold. Allied command had no explanation until such an instance happened in a Canadian harbor I believe. Before that they just assumed the Germans must have been throwing every submarine they had into the Arctic to sink so many ships, and without any kind of detection! Moral of the story is that if you're going to be cranking out ships on a weekly basis, try and use some good materials.

Logistics in the Pacific were amazing. Another great episode.

It should also be noted that while the torpedo was speeding towards the Iowa, Roosevelt was having a grand old time seeing everyone panic. Probably because he knew that it'd take a lot more than a single torpedo to sink the Iowa lol

ah, he's survived. I'm glad that after this near miss there will probably be nothing to stop Roosevelt from seeing the war to its conclusion

You can make it up to the incomparable USS Enterprise (whose place in the Gilberts raid naval roster is mistakenly attributed to the by-then-sunk Lexington) by dedicating a TimeGhost special to one of the greatest fighting ships of all time ;)

I enjoyed the "nothing atoll" joke.

Really good episode team. I'm really glad you guys pointed out the issues with that story of FDR almost getting killed by a US torpedo. I feel like that story has really blown up in popularity over the last 15 or so years. But when you look into the story in detail as you guys did the closeness of FDR getting killed has really been overblown to make the admittedly interesting story even more interesting.

I congratulate Indy on getting 2+ years into Barbarossa before making that Princess Bride joke.

Great episode Indy & team. The Princess Bride reference was delightful.

Indy: "Let me explain...." *dramatic reflective pause* "No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

Of course the one working type 14 torpedo decides to work at that point as well xD

I had never heard of the Iowa incident until this popped up in Time Ghosts instagram. What you did not mention here is that Roosevelt seemed to have stayed pretty calm in this whole incident. Very brave, considering he could not walk and in worst case was totally dependent on the aide of others.

"Never stop supporting a project you believe in." Great episode, as always.

Loving the Princess Bride reference at the end. Where was I? Oh yes, Australia

USA in the Pacific 1942: We don't have enough stuff! What do we do? USA in the Pacific 1943: We have too much stuff! What do we do? The William Porter: Oh, shit... Goebbels: Damn, where did they get all that stuff... Stalin: Uh, I guess you haven't noticed that our Motherland is a lot bigger than your Fatherland. Plus, we have cooler allies. Just sayin'...

Thank you for the additional map window that shows practically the entire easter front. It really does make identifying where the action is taking place much easier.

A Princess Bride reference. Now I consider you the best WW2 site ever... Not just one of the best...

I went to the Liri Valley in 2019. My guide was an Italian man who lived in Canada as a child then moved back to Italy after High school and was very knowledgeable about the Italian campaign. He was not a fan of Clark lol But when you go there, it is very easy to see why the Liri Valley was so hard to take, especially with La Defensa, Monte Sammucro, and Monte Camino.

Drachinifel mentions the William B. Porter in one of his videos.

1:53 Sounds like it is time to revisit Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault again upon hearing of Tarawa Atoll. On the other hand. Makin Atoll brings back memories of both Call of Duty: World at War and Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (again). I guess we will have to wait till next week's episode to see if the U.S. Marine Corps will be able to take it without needing "a million men in a hundred years".

The William D. Porter is relatively well-known for its horrible luck. Sam O' Nella and Potential History both did some pretty entertaining videos on her.

13:50 I read an account of this. I remember reading about other US Navy ships in the same convoy turn their guns toward destroyer William D. Porter ready to FIRE, after the torpedo was accidentally launched with live war head.

Love a good Princess Bride reference from out of nowhere!

The carriers returning to action are USS ENTERPRISE CV-6, the BIG E, CV-3, Saratoga joining the four new ESSEX classes, and the independence light carriers.

Tarawa was a unnecessary debacle. The actor Eddie Albert earned a Bronze Star for his bravery for rescuing stranded Marines on the reefs off the Island.

This week in French politics. The 13th, after warning Laval that he wanted to dismiss him to regain political control and try to make a Badoglio situation, Pétain tries to make a speech at the radio to promulgate a constitutional act confirming the sovereignty of the National Assembly to designate his successor but the German banned it. Pétain is now trying to make is last move, not signing any order from the government. But, in effect, he has lost any influence on the government, and he already let all his allies get imprisoned or being sent away from him. It is of note that an act from the 27th of September was written but not promulgated to designate the interim for the Head of State, if Pétain was prevented (not dead). It was a college of seven men, all loyal to Pétain, the Rear Admiral Gabriel Auphan; Yves Bouthillier, Attorney General to the Court of Audit; Pierre Caous, Attorney General to the Court of Cassation; Gilbert Gidel, Rector of the University of Paris; Léon Noël, ambassador of France (anti-German, secretly anti-Vichy); Alfred Porché, Vice-President of the Council of State and Weygand. If he was dead, then the College would convoke the National Assembly and the Interim given in 1941 would end. This act shows that at the end of 1943, Pétain is willing to let his power go because the war is not going toward the Axis side anymore and that Laval doesn’t have the same political agenda. The act from the 13th was even stronger as case of his death, his power goes directly to the National Assembly without any College. Secondly the National Assembly would now be free to have their right to reunion. Pétain is now finally writing the Constitution after 2 years without almost any work in that direction, knowing that from now on, he must try make himself look like he is on the winning side, the republican one, and that he always was “a secret resistant leader”, which he was not. This first draft reestablishes the separation of power, elected legislative bodies, strong executive but a Republic. If I could, I would speak about the Lebanon crisis but it’s already too long. To summarize: Lebanon declared its independence, the CFLN can’t (the SDN doesn't recognise as government of France) and won’t accept it so it imprisons most Lebanese politicians. The 16th, De Gaulle makes a speech to explain the situation to the Assembly. He reminds it that Free France promised it in 1941 but needs the agreement of the SDN and there are still negotiations for French bases. The 19th, English secretary of State in Cairo sends an ultimatum to Catroux to liberate Lebanese’s President and its ministers or British troops will proclaim martial law.

The History Guy has done a video about the USS William D Porter and its many mishaps...it was called "The unluckiest ship in the US navy"

"The amphibious boss." Damn, that is a hell of a title !

The team behind the maps are next level

Another brilliant Princess Bride reference! I get the feeling Indy and the Time Ghost Army are big time fans!

Great episode. Never heard the torpedo story before…thanks as always.

When the joke is so bad that you just have to hang up the phone 😆

My dad witness this event 13:11. He was on the Porters sister ship the USS 580 Young

The Lexington was a new carrier, the old one was sunk at Coral Sea.

A minor error in the video at 2:48 - while it was the good old Saratoga, the Lexington was not the old one. That one (CV-2) was scuttled due to damage taken at the Battle of the Coral Sea, in May 1942. The Lexington used for this operation was another new-build Essex-class, CV-16. Looking at the detailed order of battle (per en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Islands_naval_order_of_battle), you seem to be right that it was four Essexes and two older carriers, but the older ones were Saratoga and Enterprise. There were also eight escort carriers in the attached Task Forces 52 and 53 (the direct support forces for the two landings), so there were a total of 19 carriers all-in, not 11. But to be fair, the CVEs were pretty tiny - 27 planes, as opposed to an Essex's 90-100.

My great-uncle James Rindfleisch was on the bridge of the Iowa during this

Very cool of FDR to pardon Dawson all things considered, although he and the rest of Carnival Cruise Line were sent to Alaska where there were fewer things to ruin by being themselves.

That was awesome Indy, my family love's that movie we watch it a couple times a year. Great job on the episode as well.

Inconceivable!

Also not surprising is the wanting to imprison the sailor for 14 years basically as a scapegoat . There is definitely a class system at play. No regard for a lowly sailor. Doesn't matter that there were lots of mistakes made by officers.

A boasting Japanese Commander on Tarawa stated “a million men could not take Tarawa in 100 years.” I guess we’ll see if his prediction is correct.

Indy is such a dork, referencing the Princess Bride. I love it.

The OG Lexington wasn't around in 43. Zhed been sunk at Coral Sea the year before

Thanks Indy and Team Interesting week and episode

Consult Vizzini? Inconceivable!

If anyone is interested in the whole Willy D. Porter Story, theres a great video from Sam O´Nella Academy about it that describes the very hilarious servicetime of the Porter in a comedic way.

Being a Navy vet myself, it's mind-boggling to me the number of ships the U.S. Navy has by this point in the war compared to just a year before. Task Force 50 might well be the most powerful fleet to ever sail the waves.

Watched your show for years now, I commend you for the fine work you do and would like to express my gratitude. In the future when it is in timeline, if it is possible and would be something that you find appropriate I would like to ask if you could explore the subject of Allied Bombing of country of Montenegro and other cities on the Mediterranean coast and close to it? I would really appreciate you could look into the matter, since "folkstories" are truly insane. Once again thank you for the fine work you are doing.

I ALWAYS consult Vizzini before contemplating a land battle. My, this war is getting tiresome and I'm only watching the videos. How horrible for those actually impacted and those generations later. Thank you for this and all your videos.

Holy cow, talk about a close call! Wonderfully done crew, this episode was quite the nail biter!

How I miss this (I've fallen way behind in keeping up with the week-week episodes). Great work Timeghost!

You should do a special episode on the (mis)adventures of USS William D Porter

I gotta tell you this is why I am so hooked on your vids and am binge watching them.... I learn stuff I didn't know. Especially the USS William Porter story- I am a Retired Navy Chief who served 20 years and NEVER, EVER heard that story before- WELL DONE, INDY!!!

I could never understand how Goebbels could've been so surprised. I mean the size of USSR's population surely wasn't a secret and even if it was, there was at least some estimate. And from that, you can guess how much people they can mobilize.

Another great episode. Was curious about task force 50 with six battleships. I wondered if any were salvaged from Pearl. The six BBs of task force 50 were the six fast BBs of the North Carolina (2) and South Dakota (4) classes. Three of these battleships, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Alabama, still exist as museums/tourist attractions. When I had to go to Pascagoula for the navy, I visited the Alabama. The sixteen inch shells were huge. I also found that there was another task force, 52, which was also involved at Makin and included four Great War era battleships for fire support: Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Mississippi and Idaho. Of these, only the Pennsylvania was at Pearl when the Japanese attacked.

As always, brilliant narration 😀👍

@3:00 That's good, the landings at Tarawa should be uneventful then.

Even if the torpedo had struck Iowa, it's extremely unlikely that Roosevelt would have been killed.

Franklin Delano “Torpedos don’t scare me” Roosevelt

As a big fan of this channel AND of the movie, Princess Bride, I loved the quote and recognized it before you had half of it spoken. 🤣

Destroyer William Porter had actually been re-named - from Kamchatka. 😉

I’ve never heard this FDR story before… that’s totally crazy.

Great video as always

Yet another masterpiece of an episode.

A lone torpedo would've made barely a dent to a battleship anyway

This part of the war feels like everyone is catching their breath for the next year. The amount of truly massive battles in 1944 is staggering, as are their consequences.

Thank you for the lesson.

The logistics these people figured out is mind boggling

Another great episode

What’s Amazing is that the Mk 14 Torpedo Detonated At All ..!! they were Notoriously Bad Torpedoes..! Sometimes with 12-16 failures in a row during a single attack…! It had 3 major flaws, 1 poor depth control, 2 Wonky Magnetic detonator, 3 unreliable contact detonator… and the Admiral in charge of its development refused to believe that his torpedo had Any Problems…..

Lexington would also be an Essex carrier since the old one was at the bottom of the Coral sea..

Its really a interesting story op the ship William D Porter. If you want to know what happened more with the crew the captain and the ship. Sam o nella has a great video about it. Thank you so much to mention this event in this ww2 video. Keep up the good work

Good Work! Keep it up!

Well, there was a plot in 1933 to try in Overthrowing FDR

How nice of the USS William D. Porter to give a sense of urgency to the torpedo drill.

Just met a WWII vet this weekend that was on the USS Yorktown. Glad there are still some among us!

How come I had never heard about this series of events with FDR?! I had no idea, it's crazy to think how close to disaster he came. Unbelievable. Thank you for this bit of information.

At some point the Germans must have realized that the Allied obsession with disrupting German heavy water production in Norway hinted at something going on with the Allies as well.

Hey Indy you never spoke about the northern front (finland, Murmansk, leningrad...) Are you going to do some special episodes about that?

Hi Y'all, The US supplied horses to the Soviet Union, thousands of them, it doesn't get much mention. My father drove a truck, building roads, in about the summer of 1939 or so. They didn't have bulldozers or graders, all that was done by teams of horses. After the war, by 1946, nobody would have considered using horses on that scale to build roads. Partly that was because there was a lot of military surplus equipment available and a shortage of skilled workers, but it could be because all the horses had been shipped to the Soviet Union. Spoiler, next "summer" the Soviet will use large numbers of "mounted Infantry". Some books/movies. The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell The Wackiest Ship in the Army The Ambassador's Son by Homer Hickam Mister Roberts The Ninety and Nine by William Brinkley. Thanks for your time, take care.

I appreciated The Princess Bride reference 😂

Love the Princess Bride reference!

Thanks!

I'm a Marine, im not surprised the navy made a torpedo mistake...

The fact the destroyer accidentally launched a live torpedo at the Iowa was bad but I think this is an exaggeration of the chance that FDR would be hurt. Iowa class battleships we’re designed to take a lot more than one torpedo to sink them. I rather think the president would have enjoyed the spectacle and would understand the irony that he himself ordered the show!

What a terrific end to this very fascinating episode

Thank you for excellent video

"Enterprise" and Saratoga. Lexington at this point is one of the Essex CVs as the original one sunk in the Coral Sea. Please correct or create a dedicated episode about Enterprise to make up for this BIG error.

The Lexington you mention here was not the Saratoga's sister ship. That good old original Lexington was sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942.

Best video Indy, in one hundred and twenty five years thank you (the two on my keyboard stopped working).

This needs to be a movie.

Cracked me up when he started pulling in the Princess Bride reference.

Great episode ….