THIS is among the greatest lectures on World War 2 ever yet, and ever will be. In the first 4 minutes it is very clear. It goes on to be the epitome of excellence.

These are 3 awesome books. Seriously good scholarship beautifully written.

To those who say Atkinson didn't cover what they want covered or covered it from a certain perspective; Write your own book.

Who the hell would dislike this video upload?

My grandpa is Harry Gordon Bennett Sr. He was a combat engineer from 1940-1945 in the US Army, he told stories of fighting in France, Italy, and Germany. He told my father mostly stories of building bridges and blowing stuff up. But there were times even then he too was on the frontlines in battle.

Great video/talk on World War 2.

an average of day of fighting on eastern front was roughly equivalent to several months of fighting in france or italy to the germans in terms of resources needed. the anti-partisan campaign in belorussia alone involved more german resources than the whole of the italian campaign

He's a good presenter

This was a really good lecture. I've read all three of the trilogy he was talking about and he did a really good job. His trilogy is on the American Army in Europe & North Africa in WWII - that's what it's about. If what someone wants is something on the Eastern Front - there are plenty out there - here's two fo them: The Soviet Role in World War II - Antony Beevor kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d8B1paaH0a-oeps.html How the Red Army Defeated Germany: The Three Alibis - Dr. Jonathon House kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sM-eg8WGv7usdHk.html .

Awesome insights into both the valor and reprehensible acts of American History during the years, struggles, & Blood of WW2

Should be called WWII American Soldiers in Northern Europe. I was expecting an interesting lecture on allied and axis troops in Northern Europe...oh well.

Even napalm was used in Europe. Did he mention that before I fell asleep?

I expect most Americans don't realize the extent (27,000,000 deaths) of Soviet casualties and sacrifice in WWII. In the Cold War era, news coverage of the Soviet Union was minimal, including the Eastern Front. American movies portrayed the Western Front. Hopefully, with the fall of the USSR news is more balanced and open. However, I feel that a soldier of any country suffers the trauma and his family the losses from warfare and each soldier should be respected.

Obviously Greg l is delusional

He says Antwerp was taken by the British and Canadians, primarily by the British. Then a minute later(44:35) he says 15,000 Canadian soldiers died during the whole of Antwerp Campaign. I'm thinking the Canadians did the heavy lifting on that one.

What he said that Regular Army Black soldiers who were NCOs took voluntary reduction in rank to fight in the Infantry during WWII?That sounded insane to me?

This is not about soldiers in Northern Europe, this is america, america and about american soldiers, or how americans are full of theirselves... again

What is Northern Europe really? It is Scandinavia, Finland, Baltic States and northwestern part of Russia. France, Benelux-countries and Germany are just Central Europe. Learn some geographic first before giving names for videos.

sure, ive never read any books or seen any documentaries. the fact of the matter is that the war was not won in italy or france or north africa. the war was won on the eastern front where the germans suffered more than 90% of the losses in terms of men, equipment and morale. all other theatres, apart from the atlantic, had much lower casualties and lower relevance. the americans contributed to a few percent of the losses incurred by the nazis

Greg L: Are you Russian? If so, the only reason why your people didn't tuck tail and run is that their officers were waiting to mow them down with machine guns. Stalin killed 30 million people, and the atrocities committed by the Soviets is comparable to the Japanese. The Americans were among the top code breakers, and we didn't steal from the British. Additionally, we helped liberate Northern Africa, Southern France, we led the offensive in the Bulge, we liberated Northern France and Paris, the Netherlands, Italy and Sicily, and the only reason why the Soviets were in Berlin was (at least in part) because of the Anglo-American forces. We could have easily gone in and liberated it. We also had a far more prominent air presence which obviously helped weaken Berlin, making it easy for the Red Army to advance through the city. Don't blame us for taking too much credit while you do the same thing.

"No i do not have an [sic] respect for cowards?" So you have no self-respect? :-) Since the title of this video is "WWII Soldiers in Northern Europe," you might consider keeping your unhinged off-topic rants to a minimum.

lol, as i said couple of divisions. now compare that to how many german divisions were at kursk. read a book yank

haha, yeah sure getting poles and british indian army to do the dirty work at cassino must have been really hard compared to going toe to toe with a 100 german divisions at kursk or fighting a whole army group at leningrad. facing couple of division in italy must have been so hard in comparison

no i do not have an respect for cowards. i have respect for people who fought in moscow, leningrad, stalingrad and kursk while your "veterans" relaxed in tunisia and italy.

He's a "war college " scholar. Out.

i would say it to your face, no problem. my grandfather stormed berlin while your grandfather probably was too busy sitting in a pub in england.

a lot of butt hurt morons here. don't seem to realize that Rick Atkinson a a scholar on the US Army and he is giving a lecture at the US Army War College.

the only major contribution made by allies was done by the british by not surrendering and fighting on and then cracking all of the german cryptography. that was truly a big contribution. again the americans played no part in this apart from stealing all of the work the british did on cryptography after the war and claiming it they did all of it.

I have a hard time finding the words for such a disrespectful accusation of nonsense you have given American WW2 Veterans! Well hopefully you will read and learn, and then know how gravely off the mark you are.

yeah sure, sun bathing in italy was harder than fighting in the trenches of kursk or leningrad. the only hard bit of fighting in italy was done by poles and brits at cassino, not yanks who spent most of their time running around aimlessly and being target practise for german artillery. but please, continue to think that tom hanks won ww2

Providence decrees? Ha! What a bunch of arseholes.

Meaningless fact-dropping. One more paid lecture.

Do you always engage in such fact-free rants? Is this a hobby of yours?

Another patronising, arrogant and sanctimonious trans-Atlantic take on affairs which 'big us up'....combined with a ton of facts which smooth the shit and keep it flowing.

you probably think that it were the americans who won against japan when the yanks killed 300000 japanese civilians instead of reality: Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation where red army took out 1.3 million japanese soldiers in a week.

1) lend-lease accounted for no more than 25% of soviet materials 2) USSR produced FAR MORE tanks and planes than usa did during the war 3) lend-lease was the LEAST the americans could do. they spent most of the war cowering in england and letting the russians win the war, stalin wanted a second front in 1942 but the allies were far too scared to commit their troops to a real fight. T34 and IL-2 won the war, not sherman and hurricane