Wow, that's some family history! I hope you can carry the mantle in a manner which honors the family history.

@@shellyluzny2115 Thanks! In truth, I am not much compared to him, but I do try. Fame and achievement and often skip generations.

You should indeed be very proud of your Grandfather for his service to our country . In fact; I am 🇺🇸

@@jnstonbely5215 Thank you! Those WWII Navy sailors and officers were a breed apart. They don't make them like that any more.

We are so proud of our grandfathers who served. Mine did 3 tours pacific rnzaf and flew coursairs. Thanks USA for the planes and history guy

I like to think that this channel isn't as calculated as the above makes out.

How good is this guy?

Hear, hear!

The thing that's so great about this channel, I never knew this story. I never knew about the coast guard reserve or Mexico's roll in WW2 either. Do a KZfaq search for WW2. It's D day or Midway or the North African campaign or Hiroshima and the Manhattan project. Stories I've heard a million times. But his videos, every one is a new story for me.

Only problem is old boy is machine gun mouth. Whew, this younger generation talks like they won’t have any time.

My father-in-law had great admiration for the tin cans and crews. He called them "the fightin'est ships in the Navy". He was on a minesweeper 1943-1946 in the Pacific.

Indeed

Me too. Even with all the horrible side effects. The dry mouth, frequent urination and even the erectile dysfunction won't stop me from getting my dose of...history! Yes history.

I concur. I recently discovered this channel and being a student of history, I have found myself totally enraptured by it.

A Great Read, I read the whole thing in two days when I first came out. I have read it at least another 12 times over the years.

@@GeorgeSemel maybe I need to reread it. Great book.

Omg such a great book. I have it sitting right next to me right now.

Ironically, the Rebun James in Red Storm Rising got her whole bow torn off from a torpedo fired from a submarine. While rscorting a convoy.

@@Loki1701e Clancy was a big Naval History buff and war gamer long before he became an author. Red Storm Rising was based on the Harpoon war game. Red Storm Rising scared the _______ out of me the first time I read it. But I was a 24 year old G.I. stationed at Wiesbaden AFB in 1982.

Bwaaahahaha! Indeed. Aren't we all.

Thank you for putting that out there. I was trying to remember that incident but I couldn't place the name or the date. It would make an interesting story.

If memory serves me right, they made a movie, about the Panay. I can't remember the name of it.

That would be very interesting. Just began reading a bit about this based on your comment. Had not been aware of this beforehand. Would to see THG's take on it.

That's an excellent suggestion. I have long known of the incident involving the Panay and another ship and have longed for unbiased, historical details rather than having to wade through what might be hours at different internet sites. I do very much hope that your suggestion is fulfilled.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Panay_incident Very interesting reading Much like the USS Liberty "they didn't see the giant flags" and had told the Japanese they were in that area of the river. The Japanese even strafed the wounded as the Israelis had done.

The man is no fool. He knows the value of her knowledge.

@jeffrey mcfadden Haha I like your sense of humor!😁

Noice

Bwaaahahaha! Indeed. Aren't we all.

Then it becomes herstory.

Another great book is "The Bone Man of Kokoda" That would make a great subject here .... 😀

Only if their from Baws- Ton.

@@achillebelanger9866 Clever, but many of the western films of that period mentioned Fort Kearny and always pronounced it "Karny." I believe it is an Irish name and like so many other surnames in the British Isles, there is often no relationship between spelling and pronunciation. I am not from Boston.

@@achillebelanger9866 Or, more likely, from Nebraska.

I recently read the story of Ruben James. If I remember correctly, the story was in the Harris’ FARMER’S ALMANAC for 2021.

True!! I would listen to it repeatedly instead of doing my homework. I can still sing it though the record is long gone. I do so appreciate your input of where I may hear it again! Thank you!

@John Flaherty At the Treaty of Versailles President Wilson introduced his 'self determination' idea. At this time France 'ruled' over Annam (Vietnam) as a protectorate. Several Vietnamese in Paris put forward an official request that Vietnam have more autonomy, a telegram was sent to the US Secretary of State with 8 request, but not for complete independence. All the governments present at the Treaty ignored the requests, France went so far as to tighten it's grip on all of it's colonies, including Vietnam. The writer of the requests was none other than Ho Chi Minh, and the rest as they say is history.

@John Flaherty He was so disappointed he set up the French Communist Party, before moving to the USSR and China then on back to Vietnam. WWll gets all the Versailles caused it claims, rightly. But dig further you'll find links to most of the major conflicts, including the Middle East and Balkans (former Yugoslavia) To be fair the Middle East was decided during the war, but ratified in Versailles and other treaties. The Balkans though, there is little doubt can be traced to Versailles. Marshal Tito kept Yugoslavia together with a mix of strong but fair leadership (for a communist state). Once he was gone and communism fell, it didn't take too long to unravel.

@John Flaherty Would the US have been in Vietnam had the risk of Communism not been there? Nobody stepped in during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya or Algeria. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel (much changed) Jordan, are all lines drawn in the sand by France and the UK. Yugoslavia was a purely Versailles invention.

She was SOE not SAS. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan

Did he inspire Kahn the Star Trek Villain in Space seed ?

@@Delgen1951 No she did not.

@@RJM1011 however, there is a Dr. Who episode upcoming about her.

Why? Nobody watches those things anymore.

@@conveyor2 They sure do! who is nobody?

@@p51mustang24 Stop blaming the Jewish people for WW2. The blame for that belongs to Germany. And stop using General Patton's name in vain.

@@p51mustang24 blah blah blah online troll is obvious online troll. YAWN, NEXT!

@@p51mustang24, given how hard FDR bent the rules and did everything short of actual combat to appease Churchill I have often wondered of these two didn't have some kind of gay relationship going. Maybe that's why you never saw a picture of Churchill without that cigar in his mouth (penis by proxy?) I'm just so GLAD that FDR did not live to see the end of the war he helped get the US into.

I’d be skeptical of public opinion polls of the time. FDR allowed British intelligence wide latitude to operate in the US. Part of their assignment was propaganda including planting news stories and manipulating public opinion polls, in particular the Gallup poll. This is detailed in Thomas Mahr’s “Desperate Deception”.

"The Swiss and Swedes took similar stances." Not quite. Sweden was woefully unprepared for war and had virtually no anti-aircraft defense. Merely one division was adequately equipped for war and the whole country had to scramble for an emergency armament plan which still was insufficient. The country allowed German divisions to pass through it to get to both Norway and Finland (in their Continuation War against the Soviet Union 1941-1944) using Swedish railways and there was very little vocal opposition against that. On top of that Sweden sold a crucial amount of iron ore to Nazi Germany (though it's not like they had any choice) which angered Churchill. He actually devised Operation Catherine as a Baltic Sea offensive by the Royal Navy in 1940 to cut off the supply of iron ore to Germany. This way he hoped he might cut of the vital iron ore supply to Nazi Germany and at the same time start an "Scandinavian uprising" against Nazi Germany. The operation was called off once it became apparent the Royal Navy had to focus on the Mediterranean, Atlantic and the Pacific. "The Soviet Union carried on an undeclared war against Swedish shipping in the Baltic." Well, the British naval blockade of Nazi Germany hurt Swedish naval trade a lot more and essentially isolated the country during the war. On top of that there was a suspicion (and with good reason) that the Swedish merchant navy might actually siphon some of that into Germany (in internal trade agreements *they* had with Germany). The Swedish navy also had an emergency "get-anything-fast-fast" plan and purchased a few Italian pre-war destroyers from Italy. The British Royal Navy found out about this and had every intention of preventing these destroyers from reaching Sweden. At one point the naval forces faced each other and the British commander told the Swedish commander they would not pass without a being fired upon. The Swedish commander replied:"Well, in that case we'll have a nice little fight." The Italian destroyers now in Swedish possession were allowed to reach Sweden but there was still paranoia Why? Well, they were worried those destroyers would eventually end up in German hands or used by any potential Swedish quisling government highly pro-german. That wasn't such a far-fetched idea because Sweden had a significant and noticeable amount of pro-German sentiment both among the locals and key-figures in their society. The king himself was already pro-German during WWI and certainly didn't change his leanings during WWII. British and American intelligence units (spies) stationed in Sweden during WWII actually actively monitored the Swedish businessmen, political figures and military commanders which had nazi sympathies and had made up a list of them to be "liquidated" fast should there be an attempt at a nazi coup in Sweden to turn it into another nazi vassal state. So no, Sweden definitely didn't have any guns or ships with which to make Nazi Germany "not cross the line". Aside from their fine coastal artillery installations and good Bofors cannons they really didn't have much for a modern, mobile warfare and were severely lacking in air power. This they tried to remedy first by importing British and German aircraft. Mostly outdated Blenheim and Dornier light bombers. During the later stages of the war a lot of British and American bombers and escort fighters couldn't make the return trip all the way to England and therefore emergency landed in Sweden. There the crews were interned and the aircraft seized. That being said this "internment" was in name only and American and British crews could mingle with civilian locals virtually at will. The seized aircraft was also a way for Sweden to "purchase" modern fighter aircraft assembled and ready rather than the former "spare parts smuggled in crates marked as machine parts" smuggle routes. An agreement was made with the US government and both parts benefited. By this part of the war it became clear to Sweden that Germany was going to lose it and this enabled them to stand up more to Nazi Germany. That being said, they still were worried Nazi Germany might punish them for "siding with the enemy" and destroy what they could before they left. This *did* happen to Finland btw when Finland made a separate peace with the Soviet Union in 1944 which angered the Germans so much they torched Northern Finland while withdrawing *and* found themselves fighting Finnish troops. Sweden was a pushover during WWII, both in part because they were nowhere near prepared for a war and because the country had a significant amount of pro-German sentiment - and also a small (which worried the allies) pro-nazi one. A state supported eugenics program was in place in Sweden even before WWII and some of the leading figures were inspired by the German race politics. Fact is this eugenics program survived the war and since the country hadn't been subjected to "de-nazification" like other European countries which had been occupied during the war, this continued way into the 1960's and wasn't officially ended until 1975. That being said they saved more Jews during the war than probably anybody else. As for Switzerland. They unfortunately did earn quite a tidy sum from laundering nazi money and produced spare parts for the Germany armed forced which was one of the reasons it was discovered early on that allied bombing had little effect in slowing down the production of war material in Germany. The most important reason Hitler didn't invade them was because they weren't strategically important in the least since they were a landlocked nation and hence couldn't help the allied navies or even become an important area from which the allies could conduct any kind of operation. They were however far more prepared for war an being invaded and had invested in a quite an impressive formation of border forts and difficult to get to mountain bunkers which would have proven a difficult nut to crack as many were almost self-sustaining and could hold out for months. "Denmark and Norway told the world that the were neutral but did not have the guns to defend their stance." Well, Denmark is virtually flat and neighboring to Germany so no amount of guns would have stopped a German invasion. Without foreign troops in Denmark there could be no hope of ever defending anything. As for Norway. They were prepared to fight any *British* and *French* claims of using Norway for their own war plans and hence pushed their neutrality too far. By the time Nazi Germany invaded them there was little time to coordinate the Norwegian defense and coordinate an effective resistance with the British and French - although the allies did win in Northern Norway. Part 1....

Part 2. And there were more European countries which were neutral during WWII but still got invaded. The Netherlands were openly neutral but were invaded. Belgium was originally in a military alliance with France - and the whole French defense plan relied on the allied forces halting the German advance in Belgium - but then foolishly decided to adapt a neutral stance (foolish considering Germany had invaded neutral Belgium during WWI simply to bypass French border defenses facing Germany) and paid the price. Most Central- and Eastern European countries were neutral too but were essentially forced to sign their allegiance by signing the infamous "Tripartite Pact". They mostly signed because they feared they'd be invaded otherwise and if Nazi Germany didn't invade them their neighbor countries might seize the opportunity and snatch parts of their country (*Poland* actually opportunistically invaded and took a part of Czechoslovakia in early 1939 when Hitler annexed the country which angered Churchill so much he called the Poles "vultures"). Signing the Tripartite Pact they essentially became "nazi lackeys". Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria *all* signed the Tripartite Pact meaning they officially were in the Axis. Yugoslavia was the last to sign this pact and did so reluctantly after much internal stride in which locals protested against becoming axis lackeys. Hitler demanded an "urgent reply" from Yugoslavia (as in "sign or else...") and they (reluctantly) signed the Tripartite Pact in May 1941. However this resulted in an uproar among the population and the government was overthrown in a coup d'etat just two days later in which the sole idea was so nullify this signing. The new government was pro-British and this was enough for Hitler to invade the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As for the idea the other countries had about fearing their neighbors invading them and tearing them to pieces, well, this did indeed happen to Yugoslavia. As "reward" for having signed the Tripartite Pact Hitler allowed Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria to annex their own parts, while Italy got some of the western parts and large parts of the Dalmatian coast. Germany annexed Slovenia and gave local German minority groups all power in northern Serbia. The fascist puppet state "Independent State of Croatia" (formed from disgruntled Croats as an independent state at first but rapidly seized by Croat fascist groups financed by Mussolini). The country got partitioned. Portugal was a dictatorship (until 1974) but they had had good relationship with the British stretching back centuries so they saw little reason to join the axis. Joining WWI was considered a serious mistake for them since they had sacrificed a lot but gained little and thus they were not to eager to join any side in WWII. Hitler did hope to launch ultra-long range bombing raids on the American east coast from the Azores - which were in Portuguese possession. Nothing came of it. As for Roosevelt's "neutrality". He wisely understood the USA would go to war with Nazi Germany sooner or later and the way he saw it it was better to get involved sooner before Nazi Germany became too powerful. Above all it became important to A) Start preparing America for war and B) Supplying its allies which were already at war. That being said it was also imperative to delay the American entry as long as possible to properly prepare - unlike in WWI when it took a year before troops started arriving in France in numbers. Though one has to remember that the USA still lived by the Monroe Doctrine until 1941 and believed it had little to gain by getting involved in European wars which seemed to break out every 30 years or so. The world was a lot bigger back then and few Americans were really concerned with the well-being of people who were under threat by Nazi Germany. Most reasoned:"Just another European war. Their problem." Last of all the USA was absolutely in no position to join the war in 1939 or 1940. The army in 1939 was smaller than that of Romania and amounted to 189,839 soldiers. Thanks to Roosevelt's re-arming it grew to 269,023 in 1940 (still nowhere enough to enter a war) and 1,462,315 in 1941. WWII ended the Monroe Doctrine and the USA never again dismantled its army for peacetime.

Ditto the Panay, a similar and less politically obscured incident.

How is it unknown? The myths of it are so important to Jew-hating edgelords that the constant bringing it up has made it a meme. What's 'surprisingly unknown', or rather conveniently, would be the multiple investigations, including sworn testimony from the U.S.S. Liberty crewmen concluding it was a case of mistaken identity; lack of motive; the Israeli aircraft used were diverted from ground attacks; and the Israeli's paying millions in reparations (three times) don't fit a certain narrative...

@@IIMoses740II Well said.

@@IIMoses740II edgelords, nazis? Really? The version you are referring to sounds like wikipedia for normies version. There are no interviews with sailors on bord who stated it was mistaken identity. This is why people need to know the REAL facts of this horrific attack. I'm pretty sure you are a shill but if you want to know what really happened watch this. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pLSbmZCXm9bXeoE.html

@@rollinout2012 And thus the agenda comes out of the smoke..... No surprise. 🤨

Thankfully those huge tankers VLCCs although very easy to hit proved surprisingly resultant targets.

if I recall correctly, one of the super tankers hit a mine inbound, they didn't realize they had a hole until they started pumping oil in...

Kevin Springer - So was the Reuben James (FFG-57)!

I was too, but for me it was Prime Chance and Praying Mantis.

@@howardwhite1507 Oh they knew. Listing to port does indicate a problem. Surprised it did not blow. Empty petroleum tanks are much more dangerous than full ones.

Latter-day neo Nazis that are stuck on the horns of dilemma to explain that they love America yet support the movement that declared war on America perhaps?

I like history, not commercial plugs!

@@imapaine-diaz4451 so donate enough on Patreon that he doesn't need sponsors

Agree

And was in Red Storm Rising

USS Wadsworth was also a stand in for many of the Frigate scenes used in the film, only the initial filming was done aboard Reuben James.

"Red Storm Rising", the only novel by Tom Clancy not connected to his Jack Ryan character. Instead it centers around the Soviets invading West Germany in the 1980s and the US rushing to the aid of it's NATO allies. Can't say it's a great read even for fans of Clancy, but it had it's moments. One was a rendezvous at sea between the destroyers U.S.S. Reubens James and H.M.S. Battleaxe. The British ship sends a semaphore "Who the he'll is Reuben James?" and the American ship replies "At least we don't name our ships after our mothers-in-law."

Be mighty careful there Hoppy, sounds like you're itchin for a manslaughter conviction!

@@lamonstra1464 Do you know how amazingly rude it is to call an amputee "Hoppy"? It might be worth a manslaughter conviction just to remove your disrespectful ass from the planet. And do you know how much a conviction for manslaughter for the perpetrator helps the victim? It helps the victim not at all, because the victim is dead. You need to learn some manners there, Snapper.

One of Murphy's Laws of combat is "If the enemy is within range, sos are you". So you are right. If you don't get the first shot, you might not get a shot at all.

@@stevegilbert8486 Actually I think it's a Tzu's law of combat. He who shoots first survives.

@@erictaylor5462 Do you mean Tzun Tzu? I doubt he said this. I mean he was all about taking the initiative when the enemy was unprepared - but weapons in his time were not that accurate.